A (CATECHISM 



OF 



IKISH GEOGEAPHY 



TOPOCi K AP II Y, 



PHYSICAL, SOCIAL, HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL, 



FOR SCHOOLS AND FAMILIES, 



/) JOHN H. GREENE, 

kJJ^ ALTilOR OF "A MEMOIR OF LAMGAN." 



" We iiiuat forget all feelings ',ave tbe on.', 
We imisl beliolil no object siive our couiilrj."— Bvbon. 



PRICK, (WITH COLORKD MAP,) ONE DOLLAR AND SF.VENTY-FIVE CENTS. 



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y'^<\^' 



C<1" 



THE MOST R E V K n t N J> 



JOHN EArnST PURCELL, I). D.. 



FIK.ST ARCIIBISIIor OF CINCINNATI, 



THE KOI.I.OWING I'A(;ES AKE, with PEIiMlSSION", INSCRIBED, 



fti a JTokrii ot 



E 8 T E E ]M A N D (i K A T I T U B E 



BY MIS HVMni.E SERVANT, 



'1' 11 1: A 1 : 1' H o 11 




1 



P R E FACE. 



T') write a book witliout. books, is sonietlnng like niakiug a tool without 
tools; mid to expect a creditable gcograpliy of Ireland without the writings 
of Kirwan, Griffith, and Portlock on its geology — of Keogh, Mackay, and 
White oji its botauy — of Young, Wakefield, and Curwin on its agriculture 
aud social condition — of Kane on its general productive capacity — of 
Frazer on its mines and fisheries — of Ware, OReilly, and Wills on its 
biography — of Petrie on its architecture — of the Collectiinea and the 
Dublin Penny Journal, on its antiquities — of Burke on its peerage — 
Simon on its coins, and Crokcr on its legends — without the local dic- 
tionaries of Lewis, Gorton, and Carlisle — witliout the Surveys of tiie Dublin 
Society — without the natural histories of Boate and Berkeiihoist— without 
the excursions of Fisher, Brewer, and Mrs. Hall on its scenery — without 
having ever seen one of the two hundred f(uarto manuscriju volumes of 
antiquities by the Ordnance Survey — one of its tlii'ee tliousand man- 
uscript name books; and, worst of all, without one of its ten hundred 
superb maps — without Thorn's Almanac, Mr. Donnelly's Beturns, the Devon 
Report, a single census, or a single blue-book — is something like expecting 
a Prologomena from Lanigan, or liis Connaeiiiaries fnmi Clarke, without 
conceding to either a copy of tlie Sejitujigiut. 'I'liose works nic liic 
topographical Scriptures of Ireland; and a single glance at any tine of 
them, by the present writer, lias not been a. possibility during the ]j)o- 
duction of tiie following pages. The lioine apothegm of "tiuding a needle 
in a bundle of straw. ' obligingly ciicuniscribes the dithculty by telling 
where the needle is to be found; Init what wizard can tell wliere Hamilton's 
Letters on Antrim — Dubourdien, Giesekic, or Whiieliurst on the Giant's 
Causeway — Piers on Westmeath— Downing on Mayo — Smith on (Jork and 
Kerry — Ryland on Waterford — Hardiman on Gnlwuy — Sampson on Deny, 
and Grose on Meath, are to be found nu Ilie banks of tlie Ohio'.' It 
is a positive fact, that in the neighboring city of Louisville, ivitli n popula- 
tion as large as that of Limerick, there could not be found, last year, 
a map of Ireland to illustrate, for a modei-ate audience, a lecture upon the 
subject of this volume, tlie artixlir substitute having been a barbaious 
outline of the Irish const, in chalk, tui a blackt)oard! 

It is due to the country here undertaken to be jiortniyed, and it is 
due to the writer, to have this very (jualilying fact set forth; and if the 
character of the former were not as luuch involved as that of the latter, 
the latter would consult his own feelings liy withholding, because of its 
personal complexion, a circumstance still more i|nalifying. Though hav- 
ing, for several years, made preparations for sup])lying, in the old land 



itself, a loujr and deep-felt want — that of a well digested and carefully- 
worded school and family jreography of Ireland — it little occurred to him 
that he should ever be thrown, in the new world, upon thoge compilations 
and observations, as a means of subsistence. Such, however, came to pass 
about nine niontlis ago, soon after his arrival in this country, when this 
publication was first commenced, in nearly hebdomidal issues of eight 
pages each; yet he trusts, that a higlier motive soars herein than any 
which scuds around the stagnant depths of mere self-interest. This period- 
ical form of publication. at once set going the ordinary wheel of consequent 
periodical duties; and, as a single line here published was not composed 
before that date, it created tlie inevitable necessity of writing lo cotrh time. 
Thus, between canvassing for subscribers, writing tlie next "number," 
correcting the proof-sheets, delivering every copy of every issue, keeping and 
collecting small accounts, and even binding tlie •' parts," one poor literary 
factotum was well split; the delivery alone keeping him on the foot four 
days successively out of the seven! To the original subscribers in Cin- 
cinnati, Newport, and Covington, these facts, which they know so well, 
need not be recalled, except as a complete apology for the long trial of 
patience, to which this tedious routine has subjected them, and of which 
tlieir humble servant is deeply and gratefully sensible. 

Such are the very uninviting circumstances under which the following 
pages have been produced ; yet, the consequent tojiographical and typo- 
graphical commissions and omissions will lie found of little material 
consequence, perhaps not nun-e serious than the sly hipms on page 107, 
wlieie a nominal coincidence has transferred an historical association from 
Ualtimore, in Longford, to Baltimore, in Cork. Respecting the interrogatory 
form and the extreme explicitness of the composition, tliey proceed from a 
sincere contempt of literary pretension at the expense of utiUti/ — the de- 
lii)erate exeiuuigc (if the rhetorician's esteem for the plain man's thanks. 

To omit, in the midst of tliesc reminiscences, the name of George I'etrio, 
LL. i)., M. li. I. .\., isic. 6:c., should argue, in the writer, either a little 
lieiid or a little heart. To tliis geiitlenuin s friendship, since 184'.t, lie is 
indebted for his privileges in tli<i great Library of the Dublin University, and 
that of the Royal Dublin Society; and to E. R. Colles, Esq., Librarian of 
ilie latter institution, to Dr. Todd and Dr. Graves, Senior Fellows of the 
former, and his securities therein, he deems this the most appropriate place 
to make known his obligations. The first-named of these three gentlemen 
has secured his special gratitude; and, though not in immediate connection 
with this little production, he can not forget, in thjs place, a proved literary 
and personal friend, whose political virtue and large talents first inspired 
him with a turn in the direction of fatherland — Charles Gavan Duffv. 

His acknowledgments are now ended, when he adds — that, fi-om his 
f>wn personal experience, a few manuscript volumes of notes, a pocket 
manual, named "the Hibernean Gazetter,'' printed in "1789," and now nearly 
half obsolete, a few books acknowledged through the work, and lent him 
by two or three of his subscribers, in particular by the Very Rev. l). T. 
Collins, V. G., and W. G. Halpin, Esq., the following pages are compiled. 

('.'iicinnati Man --J; 1859. J. IJ, (j 



GREENE'S GENERAL 

GEOGRAPHY OF IIIELAND, 



.M>ArT(CJt TO so;f 



CHAPTEU I. — PROVINCKS. 

Question. Since groat numberH of the Ainericaii ])e()pK' 
have come from li'ehuid, and since Ireland is now connected 
with America by the Athmtic Cable, I should lilce to know 
something about that country? 

Answer. That is right. Look, then, on the map of EurojK' — 
that second largest island is Ireland. 

I see. Ii"eland, then, is 8Ui"rf)unded by the sea. and is neai-er 
to America than any other nation in Europe. 

Exactly so ; and for this reason all niessages sent from 
America to the old world, by the Atlantic telegraph, must first 
come to Ireland. 

What two points, belonging to the two continents, are con- 
nected by the Cable? 

Trinity Bay in Newfoundland, and Valentia Bay in Ireland. 

Show me Valentia Bay on the map. 

There it is, in the county of Kerry and province of Munster. 

I now perceive th^it Ireland is divided into counties, like the 
United States and Great Britain, but what are provinces? 

The word " province " literally means, a country that has 
lost its independence. 

How many provinces does Ireland consist of? 

Pour, named Leinster, Munster, Ulster, and Connaught. 

And were these four territories t'onuerly independent and 
separate countries? 

They were, for many centuries ; first, they \ver<' govoned 
b}' kings, and afterward by presidents. 

Have they separate governments now? 

No; they are now united under one gover)ioi\ who goes bv 



[2] 

the title of Lord Lieutenant or Viceroy, and wlio keeps hJB 
court in Dublin, the capital. 

What, then, is the use of still retaining the old division of 
provinces? 

It is a very pretty division, and is still useful for legal and 
ecclesiastical purposes. 

Please explain. 

I mean that, for the better administering of the laws, couu 
tries are sectioned into judicial circuits, as is the case in Amer- 
ica and Great Britain. Ireland has four such circuits, corres- 
ponding to the four provinces. And, as to church government, 
the same arrangement is equally convenient. Since the twelfth 
century, each of these quarters has been a separate archiepis- 
copal province. Besides, if you look at the map of Ireland, 
you will see there are natural grounds for this quarterly divi- 
sion of the island. 

I see now, the natural, the political, the judicial, and the 
ecclesiastical provinces aie identical, in this country. ' 

They are nearly so, and this is seldom the case. England, 
for instance, is divided into six judicial circuits, but only into 
two ecclesiastical provinces ; and neither arrangement is based 
u))on any obvious natural distinctions in the geography <A' the 
country. By a recent act of Parliament, the Established 
Church in Ireland was deprived ()f two of its archbishops, in 
order that it might resemble the Established Church in Eng- 
land, but the Irish Catholic church keeps up the ancient 
tetrarchal system, 

CHAPTER II. COUNTIES. 

What are the objects of dividing countries into counties? 

Chiefly, local government and representation in the legisla- 
ture. Grand juries of counties look after the public roads, 
hospitals, jails, etc.. within their respective shires; and every 
county has a sheriff, whose business it is to see that the law is 
executed within his district. 

How many counties in Ireland? 

Thirty -two : twelve in Leinster, nine in Ulster, six in Mun- 
ster, and five in Connaught. 

Why no more and no less? 



[3] 

Parti}', because of natural causes, and partly, for political 
reasons, now not easily traced. 

I 'm not satisfied ; tell me the natural causes, and give me 
your idea of the political reasons. 

All physical boundaries arc the same in all countries, such 
as rivers, mountains, the sea, etc. 

Name one Irish county determined by rivers. 

I could several; but Antrim and Down, in the north-east of 
the islan<l, are two complete instances. 

Name an instance or two showing that hilLs or mountains 
have obviously done the same thing. 

Sligo is conij)letely encompassed by a circular chain of hills. 
Kerry is separated from Cork by a mountain line; while Don- 
egal and Wicklow are plainly- determined by their mountain 
features. 

Any other illustrations of a similar kind? 

Every one of the counties affords such, more or less ; and 
not only the larger, but also the smaller subdivisions, as baro- 
nies, parishes, and townlands. Look at all those promontories 
indicated on the map : every one is a separate barony, while 
no part of the county Clare passes beyond the natural bound- 
ary line by which it is almost insulated. 

Now I should like to know what are the political reasons to 
which 3'ou have alluded? 

In ancient times the island was cut up into a great many 
principalities, each controlled by its own lord or chief; and 
some of the present divisions are exactly identical with the 
chieftaincies upon which they were founded. 

Give an instance. 

The O'Tooles owned the mountain district now constituting 
the county ot Wicklow. The O'Donnells (one of whom was 
Dictator of Spain in 1857 and '58) held Tir-Connell, now named 
Donegal. The patrimony of the Maguires surrounded Lough 
Erne, and is now the county Fermanagh. Tyrone, (Tir-Owen, 
or the land of Owen,) before it was reduced to shire-ground, 
was much more extensive, as the territory of the O'Neills ; and 
some of the smaller shires of Ulster would seem to be slices of 
it handed over to sheriffs, one by one, as they were taken by 
the strong arm of England, in its long struggle with that pow- 
erful family. 



[4] 

THAPTKR HI. — TOWNS. 

r recollect yon said Dublin is the capital of Ireland : where 
is Dublin ? 

It is in the county of Dublin and province of LeinHtcr, nearly 
opposite to Liverpool at the other side of the Irish Sea. 

How far is Dublin from Liverpool ? 

One hundred and twenty miles; but Holyhead, at the near- 
est corner of Wales, is only about half that distance. 

What place does Dublin hold amona: the cities and toMns of 
the British Empire? 

It is second to London only ; but Liverpool and ^Manchester 
have larger populations, and either is more Avealthy. 

How, then, does Dublin rank as the second city in the Brit- 
ish Isles? 

By reason of its superior beanty, owing- to its picturesque 
location, and splendid public buildings; its importance as the 
capital of an ancient nation, which makes it the centre of a 
great man}' civil, political, and social institutions, besides 
being the seat of the vice-regal court. 

I have heard of Cork and Belflist — are they in Ireland? 

Yes. Cork is the second city in the island, and is situated 
in the county of Cork and province of Munster. Bclfost is the 
capital of Ulster, and belongs to the county of Anti-im. The 
chief town of ( '< iinaught is <^Jahvay, upon an outlet ot Lough 
Corrib. 

Aic these all seaports? 

They are, and places of considerable trade with rjreat Bri- 
tain and America. 

1 h.ive heard of Limerick lace and gloves — where is that 
ci^y? 

In Munster, near the mouth of the Shannon. It ranks be- 
fore Galway, and till lately Avas considered the third t-'ity in 
Ireland ; but Belfast has shot far ahead of it in every respect, 
and promises to treat Cork in the same way. 

Which are the other principal towns in Ireland? 

The cities of Waterford and Deny, in the extreme south and 
north of the island, and the inland cities of Kilkenn}* and Ar- 
magh : all these are the chief towns of the counties so named. 
Newry, in county Down, Sligo, in Connaught, Drogheda and 
Dundalk. in Louth, are important and increasing seaports. 



151 

\Vc have now learned something of the political and social 
geography of the country — Avhat next ? 
If you please, its great natural features. 



PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 

CHAPTER IV. — BIRDS-EYK VIKW. 

I should like to know how Ireland would look from a bal- 
loon, supposing it possible to take the whole island in at a 
glance ? 

That is what is termed a " bird's-eye view, " and such is the 
v\ew presented V)}- all good maps. 

T see, then, by this map of Ireland, that the island is some- 
what square in contour, and very much cut up on the coast — 
is that so? 

It is ; the shape is that of an irregular rhomboid, whose 
length is to its breadth as three to two. 

Let me understand you? 

I mean that the longest straight line that can be drawn on 
the country is 306 miles ; and its breadth, measured at right 
angles to that line, is 210 miles, and passes through Mayo and 
Wexford . 

How much ground looks up to the sky in Ireland? 

In round numbers, the area is about twenty one millions of 
acres. 

Please be exact. 

Well, exactly 31,874 square miles, or 20,808,271 acres. 

Is this much or little, when compared Avith the areas of other 
countries ? 

Of course, it is much less than that of Great Britain, which 
includes three nationalities ; but it is a good deal more than 
the united areas of Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica, the three 
next most important islands belonging to Europe. It is equal 
to a whole group of German Principalities, including the king 
dom of Wurtemburg. It wants but little of being twice as 
extensive as the States of the Church. One province of it 
is larger than the sovereign State of Tuscany. Ireland would 



[ >■> ] 

make two republics, either as big as Switzerland. It is more 
spacious tiian the kingdoms of Holland and Belgium put 
together; while it supports a larger population than the vast 
peninsula of Sweden and Norway united. 

Looking down on this important island from a bird's-eye 
point of view, what are its broad physical features? 

A great central plain, protected from the ocean by a sublime 
roast, and ironi the storms by surrounding mountains, spa- 
cious bays, bold head-lands, with many lakes, peat-fields, and 
rivers. 

CHAPTKU V. VOLCANIC TRACKS. 

What is the theory of mountains? 

That they have been protruded through the level plain by 
subterranean force, which force is supposed to be that of fire. 

What! chains of mountains rising above the clouds, stretch- 
ing in length hundreds of miles, and spreading in breadth 
over whole districts, to be lifted up out of the bowels of the 
earth ? 

Precisely so. Burning mountains are met with in every 
part of the globe, and all history refers to them. That there 
is such a thing as subterranean tire is thus made manifest; 
and actual boring through the crust of the earth has demon- 
strated, that the internal temperature of the globe increases, 
according to depth, at the rate of one degree for every mile 
nearer the centre. But the centre of the earth is four thous- 
and miles from us, and four thousand degrees of heat more 
than we have, would melt iron. 

But would it be suflBcient to lift the Wicklow Mountains? 

I do think so. In 1819 the plain of Cutch, in Hindostan, 
was elevated ten feet throughout an extent of 750 square 
miles, while about as much more of the same plain was de- 
pressed at the same instant. Earthquakes have been felt in 
every age and every country, rocking the very mountains 
themselves, and capsizing cities, with as much ease as you 
would a houst; ol cards. Jeddo, the capital of volcanic Japan, 
was overturned in 1705, and still later, in 1856, when near 
half a million ol souls were ushered into eternity, in an instant. 
In 1822 Aleppo, in Turkey, met a similar tate, and had twenty 
thousand of its inhabit.ant6 buried alive. Lisbon fiared still 



[' ] 

worse, when that capital was overturned by an earthquaU»\ 
and the whole peninsula convulsed 

Yes, and lately the papers brought us such another tale 
from Mexico. But is it Icnown that Ireland is within the 
sphere of volcanic influence? 

It is. A subterranean shock awoke all the British Isles on 
the night of Tuesday, the Hh ot Novennber, 1852, and was 
strongly felt in Dublin, and ail along the Irish coast. And it is 
rather noticeable, that this is the mountain line in Ireland. 

Anything else in the same direction. 

Yes ; the geology of the whole north of Ireland, but more 
especially of Antrim, is exceedingly curious and interesting. 
Ulster is more disturbed than any other of the provinces, and 
this fact is quite in keeping with its contiguity to agitated 
Scotland. 

How far is Ulster from Scotland ? 

Only about ten miles; and the miracle on the north coast of 
Antx'im, which is partly repeated at the other side of the channel, 
baffles all conjecture, if this igneous hypothesis be given up. 

Pray, what miracle is on the north coast of Antrim? 

The " Giants' Causeway," so named because of a notion 
among the peasantry, that it is the work ot ancient giants ; 
and, till recently, even intelligent visitors thought this great 
geological phenomenon betrayed too tnuch design, to be the 
accidental otFect of any natural cause. But, now. there is n<> 
second opinion about it among scientific men. 

Proceed, I shall stop from my dinner to hear all about it ! 

Its full description will be given in a future page of thi.s 
work, under its proper head. " Scenery." 

Does any other country possess such a curiosity? 

Yes, but nothing of the kind on so large a scale, has yet been 
discovered. The whole interior of this county Antrim is 
strewn with manifestly volcanic remains. And phenomena of 
a similar type are mot with at Murat, in central France, 
and the Isle of Staffa, in Scotland. 

CHAPTER VI. — THE LIMESTONE PLAIN. 

I have heard it said that Holland is all flat, and Switzerland 
all mountainous ; but I see both features are blended in Ire- 
land? 



[8] 

Yes, but the plain predominutcs bj' a <rreat deal. It com- 
prehends twenty counties, and is so varied that, compared 
with Holland, it is no plain at all. Much of the Nether- 
lands is lower than the level of the sea; but the Irish plain is 
from two to three hundred feet above it. In Weslmeath and 
Ulster it rolls very much. In Roscommon it very softly un- 
dulates. In Longford and Cavan it is still more varied. In 
the King's County it is cut riglit across by the Slievebloom 
chain, from one to two thousand feet high. In Tipperary it 
assumes the shape of long, extended vales, flanked by hills 
and boldly relieved by the towering Galties at one side, and 
the Devil's Bit at the other. The celebrated Rock of Cashel, 
with the sublimest ruins in Western Europe on its top, rises 
abruptly out of the (Toldcn Vale. The Rock of Dunamasc, 
in the Queen's County, is such another interruption ; and, also, 
the fine, rolling country between Cashel and Killeuaule, in 
which neighborhood is the isolafed and historic Mount of 
Slievc-na-mon, one of the boldest in the country. 

Why, then, do j'ou call this central district a plain? 

Because the higher interruptions of Tipperary, Westmeath, 
and the King's County, are few and far between, while the 
lesser are cultivated, like the surrounding country, and dwin- 
dle down to insignificance, compared with the elevated barriers 
that surround them. 

Is no part of this general plain a perfect level, like Holland, 
Denmark, or Lombard}'? 

Yes ; all Kildare, much of Meath, and the great peat belt, 
known as the Bog of Allen. Kildare has one of the finest 
racing-grounds in Europe ; and even here, right down on the 
Curragh, there are modulations of surface which serve specta- 
tators as natural platforms, or " stands," at that Epsom of Ire- 
land. 

What is the Geology of this plain ? 

Very simple ; limestone being the surface rock all over it , 
hence it is named the Limestone Plain ; hence, also, its great 
fei'tility; and hence it is regarded as a section of the great 
plain of central Europe, which stretches from the Ural Moun- 
tains, across Russia. Hungary. Germany, and England. 



[9] 

CHAPTER VII. THE MOUNTAINS. 

When you spoke, in a former cluapter, of the '' surroinidin<^ 
mountains," did you mean to convey, that those of Ireland run 
in a circuitous chain around the central plain, like the rim 
round a plate? 

Not exactly ; but if your plate is more square than round, 
and a third longer than wide, if it be indented on the edge, 
and this rim filed down so as to leave nine or ten knobs stand- 
ing in certain positions, it will then answer as a familiar, 
though a very unscientific, illustration of our subject : the 
Irish mountains are less concatenated than grouped. 

Seeing that a plate conveys the idea of depression in the 
centre, while the Irish plain is so much above the level of the 
sea, I fancy this oblong table, with those books upon it, could 
be made to illustrate this point better. 

Very good. All islands may be regarded as table lands in 
the sea, except those M^hich have no level plain, such as tlie 
sugar-loaf island of Tenneriffe. 

Is this maratime distribution of the Irish mountains of any 
economical advantage to the country? 

Certainly. It spreads the charms of natural scener}^ all 
round the land, besides screening the low grounds from almost 
every wind that blows. 

What is the direction of the mOvSt prevailing wind in Ireland ? 

South-westerly ; and the storms which frequently sweep 

from this point of the compass are met at the very threshold 

(so to speak) bj' the highest and most extended group of 

mountains in the island. 

But do not mountains interfere with agriculture, by taking 
from the arable surface of the country'? 

Most undoubtedly. Scotland, for instance, is almost as large 
as Ireland, but, owing to its mountain chai-acter, it has only 
about five millions of acres which can be cultivated, while Ire- 
land has over thirteen millions fit for the plough. In like man- 
ner England, which is less mountainous than Ireland, has still 
more arable land in proportion to its area. In other words, one- 
fourth of Scotland, two-thirds of Ireland, and three -fourths of 
England, are capable of cultivation, princiiDally on this account. 
In what other way than those stated do the mountains of Ire- 
land compensate for their encroachment on the arable surface ? 



[10] 

They 3^ield excellent building stone, in which England is 
rather deficient; and they are all, more or less, metalliferous; 
iron, lead, copper, silver, gold, and other metals, having been 
extracted from them, since the remotest times. 

Do they still yield the useful and precious metals? 

They do, abundantly; but for the want of wood, in which 
Ireland, like Scotland, is very deficient, the iron ores of Ireland 
can not be profitably smelted ; but the silver and copper mines 
of Waterford, Tipperary, Wickhnv, and Kerry, are well known; 
and so lately as eighty years ago, the government worked a 
gold mine in the Croghan mountains of Wicklow. 

But do not mountains diminish the temperature of a country, 
and, if so, Ireland ought to be colder than England? 

And perhaps it is; but this is owing to more special causes, 
which will be explained by and by. No mountain in Ireland or 
G-reat Britain is a mile in height, and it takes a full mile up in the 
air to diminish temperature five degrees. When up half way 
the highest mountain in Ireland, you experience no greater 
cold than you would in Derry after leaving Cork. 

Have you arrived at that fact by personally traveling both 
ways ? 

No, it is an easy inference from the truth, that 328 feet high 
is tantamount to a degree of latitude, as respects climate. 

Any other argument on this head? 

Yes; the latitude of Ireland obliges the sun's rays to strike 
the plain of that country at an acute angle, to the great loss of 
much solar heat ; the uplands, however, receive those rays at 
right angles, and thus a beautiful economy is consulted very 
much in the interests of temperature and vegetation. 

Nothing more ? 

Looking at the history of Ireland, as well as the histories of 
Greece, Switzerland, Scotland, Circassia, and the world, it can 
not be denied, that mountains have always been the last and 
best body-guard of struggling Freedom. 

CHAPTER VIII. SAME SUBJECT — ELEVATIONS. 

I should like to know the exact elevation of the highest 
mountain in each of the four countries ? 

The Irish mountains are higher than those of England, but 
lower than those of Scotland or Wales. The Scotch mountains 



L 11 ] 

have more than one point liigher than the highest in the three 

other countries. Here are their respective altitudes : 

Ben Macdhui (Scotlanil), ------ 4,390 feet. 

Suowden (Wales), - - 3,571 " 

Carntual (Ireland), ------- 3,404 " 

Scafell (England), ------ 3,16G " 

Compare these, now, with the liighest on the continent. 

If the four could be piled on each other, Mont Blanc Avould 
he still higher; while some peaks in Asia have nearh" twice 
that altitude. 

It appears, then, that the highest mountains are in tropical 
latitude, and that the mineral, as well as the animal and vege- 
table kingdoms, diminishes towards the cold poles. 

It is indeed rather noticeable, that the highest mountains arc 
found in the very regions which most need them, as if to show 
that tlie very accidents of nature reveal a Providence. Those 
might}^ mountain-chains of the torrid zone, though under a 
vertical and scorching sun, have night-caps of snow on their 
heads, which they never doff, and, consequent!}', which never 
cease night and day to absorb the superabundant heat. Moun- 
tains, however, do not exhibit a regular stuntment, like vege- 
tables, as they recede from the tropics. 

I Avill thank you for an illustration. 

The Scandinavian chain, for instance, is more than twice the 
elevation of Carntual, though the latter is so much more south. 

In what part of Ireland is Carntual ? 

In Kerry : it is one of the MacGillicuddy's Eeeks, so named 
from an ancient Irish family whose hereditary representative 
still holds, in courtesy and in law, the magniloquent title of 
" The MacGrillicuddy of the Eeeks." 

Please to point out on the map a few of the highest groups, 
beginning with the most elevated. 

Here they are in the order of size, — those of Kerry, Wick- 
low, Tipperar}^ Down, and Mayo : 

The Reeks (Kerry), - - 3,404 feet. 

Brandon (Kerry), 3,120 " 

Lugnac;uilla ( Wicklow), ------ 3,039 " 

Galtymore (Tipperary), - 3,008 " 

Slievedonard (Down), ------ 2,796 " 

Mangerton (Kerry), .._... 2,754 " 

Mulrea (Mayo), - - 2,680 " 

with some twenty -two other points, all more than two thous- 
and feet hisrh. 



[12] 

Does the geology of the Irish mounttiins bear out the ig- 
neous theoiy referred to in a former ehapter? 

It does. The VVicklow, Down, Mayo, Donegal, and other 
groups in Ulster and Connaught, are granite, or have a granite 
nucleus, with other crystalline conglomerations ; but, strange to 
say, near the mouth of the Bann, where the most striking evi- 
dences of volcanic convulsion are strewn in all directions, fos- 
sils have been found under circumstances which give the lie to 
all geological theory ! 

What are fossils? 

The word fossil is Latin, and literally means anything dug up ; 
but, as a term in geology, it always signifies some animal or 
vegetable petrifaction, which, in "reason's ear," is very elo- 
quent resjDecting the former state of our globe. 

CHAPTER IX. THE GREAT COAST. 

Looking on the map of Ireland, I see the coast of that coun- 
try is very much cut up, especially on the west — has that al- 
Avays been the case? 

I think not. You see the island is greatly exposed to "the 
the infantry of the deep and the cavalrj^ of the air." 

I understand you : the action of the ocean and that of the 
atmosphere have frittered away parts of the coast and pro- 
duced those great gaps? 

In conjunction with other causes and circumstances, such 
appears to be the fact. 

What are the other causes and circxtmstances ? 

Earthquakes, friable rocks, lakes and caverns : earthquakes 
split the land ; friable rocks are easily splintered ; lakes near a 
coast are its greatest enemy, and subterranean spaces under- 
mine the ground itself. 

Why, this hypothesis would go to explain all the terraqueous 
phenomena on the globe. 

Very nearly, and the existence of Ireland itself as an island. 
Earthquakes crack isthmuses, upheave the bed of the sea, spill 
the ocean in on laud, and thus are instantly produced islands, 
peninsulas, bays, harbors, straits, salt-water lakes, and all the 
other phases of marine landscape. 

Is this merely jowr conjecture? 

It is something more. History assures us it was in this or a 



[13] 

Bimihir way that the Zuydcr Zee was formed. That Zee (or 
sea) now occupies the bed of a Dutch lake, wliich sent out a 
river nearly as long as the Liffey, but lake and river arc now 
nowhere ! 

You remind me of one of Moore's beautiful Melodies, Avhich 
accounts for Lough Neagh in a similar way — 

" On Lough Neaglvs banks as the fisherman strays, 

When the clear cold eve is declining, 
He sees the Round Towers of other days 

In the waves beneath him shining." 

Such was the notion ; but the fact is, that lake is not as deep 
as some of the Round Towers are high. Be the origin of Lough 
iSTeagh, however, what it ma}', we are told in the History of 
Holland that, in L532, North Beveland, an island, thirteen 
miles by three, in the German Ocean, was overwhelmed, and 
only the tops of its steeples could be seen for years. And it 
was about the same time the salt lake near Dort was formed 
by a sudden inundation, to the destruction of seventy -two vil 
lages and twenty thousand people ! 

Anything peculiar about the Irish coast? 

Yes ; besides its geological peculiarities, referred to in a 
former place, it is one of the boldest in the world. From Fair 
Head, at the North Channel, all round westward to " Car- 
bery Rocks," in Cork (the Carberice Rapes of Swift,) where, 

"Prone on the wave the rocky ruin drops, " 
it atfords prospects of land and ocean which admit ot few 
parallels. 

How high is the Irish coast? 

More than one point of it has twice the elevation of the 
North Cape in Lapland, which is twelve hundred feet high, 
and usually considered the boldest headland in Europe. 

Is the Irish coast, then, the highest belonging to that 
continent? 

I am inclined to think, that of Norway, at the Lofoden 
Islands, is as elevated, if not more so, while the coasts of Scot- 
land and Iceland are also important rivals. 

I perceive from the map that the east of Ireland is not so 
rugged as the north and west. 

Because the one is mainly a shore, and the other a coast. 
Leinster, however, has some bold headlands, for instance. 



[14] 

those of Bray and Wicklow, the Hill of Howih, and the coast 
of Killiney. 

Suppose a hio-h spring-tide were to come? 

A higli spring tide is always a deluge to the south and east 
of England, but it is seldom noticed in Ireland. It is an inter- 
esting fact — there are sixty feet between high and low water 
marks at Chepstow on the Severn^ but only twenty-one feet at 
London. In Ireland astronomy was brought into ridicule, a 
few years ago, by a prophesy from the Royal Observatory, 
respecting an extraordinary spring tide, which was to inun- 
date all the seaports on a certain day. The day came, and 
found the cellars and basement rooms of the Dublin and other 
custom houses, as well as private stores, quite cleared of 
everything perishable ; but there was no flood in Ireland on 
this occasion, and the good citizens of Dublin laughed at the 
expense of the Royal Observatory. The next day, however, 
the London papers reported the sweeping over, by the pre- 
dicted tide, of whole sheep-walks in Hampshire, to the great 
loss of property ! 

CHAPTER X. THK BAYS AND " LOUOIIS." 

Looking on the map of Ireland I notice several salt-water 
inlets termed '^ loughs ; " I thought " lough" in Ireland, as well 
as " loch " in Scotland, means lake ? 

So it does ; and it is because some of those inland bays re- 
semble lakes, being almost landlocked, that they are re- 
garded as such and named as such. And for a similar x'eason 
many of the peninsulas are named islands. 

Is not this feature peculiar to Irish nomenclature? 

By no means. '• Portland Isle " in Dorsetshire (South Eng- 
land) is no island at all ; and " gulf," in the nomenclature of 
southern Europe, is frequently a misnomer of this description. 
Every language has little misnominal vagaries of this class, 
which would seem to proceed from a poetic taste. 

By the by I can not see this "word "gulf" on the map of 
Ireland. 

It is seldom, if ever, applied in that country, though more 
than one of the deep inlets on the west coast might be very 
properly so named. Lough Strangford is a true gulf, but 



[15] 

Lough Koylc and Lough Swilly are too shallow to be so desig- 
n ated . 

Describe some of these great inlets. 

Bantry Bay is from five to seven miles wide and thirty miles 
long. This is one of the finest harbors belonging to the conti- 
nent of Europe. The Bay of Kcnmare River is still longer by 
ten miles. Clew Bay, so picturesquely studded with hundreds 
of islands, is twelve by seven, and endowed with charming 
scenery. Strangford Lough is seventeen miles by five, and 
similarly studded with islands, which occasion the whirlpool 
of Ballyculter at every half ebb. Ijough Swilly is scarcely 
two miles in breadth, but twenty-five in its serpentine length. 
Lough Foyle is sixteen by nine, and has all the features of a 
salt-water lake with the additional romance of tides. Carling- 
ford Lough admits the tide up to Newry, the third port in 
Ulster, and twenty miles from the Irish Sea. This and Dublin 
Bay have charming associations of nature and art; while other 
bays all round the coast spread, in superficies, from twent}' to 
two hundred square miles each, those of Donegal, Galway, and 
Dingle approaching this latter figure. 

CHAPTER XI. THE HARBORS. 

Is Ireland fortunate in its harbors? 

Very much so. Few countries ai^ so favorably circum- 
stanced in this important respect. More than a dozen Irish 
harbors can float and accommodate the largest men-of-war, 
and those adapted to commerce may be counted by the score. 

Am I to understand, that the harbors of Ireland are natu- 
rally complete, without the aid. of art? 

By no means ; almost all harbors require the hand of art as 
well as that of natui-e ; the latter gives them to us in the 
rough, and the former trims them to its own taste, by the build- 
ing of piers and docks, the blasting of rocks, the clearing 
away of sand, the widening and deepening of beds, or the 
erection of light-houses. 

Has all this been done for the Irish harbors? 

Yes, to a greater or less degree, according to the means of 
•each seaport and its commercial requirements, but much more 
in this way is badly required, all round the coast. 



[10] 

Are there no purely uitificial harbors in Ireland? 

Yes, that of Kingstown is a splendid sample of an artificial 
harbor, sheltering the smallest craft, and floating the largest 
man-of-war. 

AVhat kind of harbors have the great ports of Dublin, Cork, 
Belfast, and Limerick? 

Dublin Bay owes little to art, while Dublin Harbor owes 
little to nature: the one is naturally complete, the other artifi- 
cially so. But as the Bay is not nai*row enough to serve as a 
harbor, and the Harbor not wide or deep enough to admit war- 
vessels, these formidable leviathans never come further up 
than Kingstown. 

This, perhaps, explains the costly artificial works at this 
latter place? 

So it does, Kingstown being only six or seven miles from the 
metropolis. 

Now as to Cork ? 

Cork Harbor is naturally one of the finest belonging to 
Europe. The largest men-of-war can lie or manoeuvre in the 
outer Harbor of Cove, and the largest merchantmen come up 
seven miles farther to the inner Harbor at Patrick's Bridge ; 
while the scenery for ten miles is fully equal to that of Pier- 
mont on the Hudson, which (I fancy) it very much resembles. 

What kind of a harbor has the capital of the north ? 

A plain but very good one, as may be expected for a port of 
such commercial standing as Belfast. The Lagan meets Bel- 
fast Lough at this place, and is both wide and deep. 

Is Limerick favorably situated for commerce ? 

Yes. especially with America. The Shannon spills into the sea 
the greatest volume of water of any river in the British Isles, 
not excepting the Tay, and is navigable nearly throughout the 
whole of its course. Limerick is thus fed by the towns and 
valley of the Upper Shannon for a hundred miles, while sixty 
more of a harbor avenue could accommodate all the merchant- 
men of Europe. 

What else? 

Waterford Haven, in which the sister rivers, Suir, Nore, and 
Barrow, disembogue, is another first-class commercial outlet, 
owing much to art, as well as nature ; and nature invites art to 
" go and do likewise " in seventy other places round this favored 
island. 



L17] 

CHAPTER XII. — THE LAKES. 

We have now traveled through the maratime counties, 
climbed the mountains, looked out from the great coast, and 
skiifed around the principal bays and harbors, let us, in the 
next place, proceed inland, and examine the other broad 
features of the country, to which you referred at the close 
of the fourth chapter, 

With all my heart. Those other features, there spoken 
of, are lakes, peat-fields and rivers. 

Are these prominent features of Ireland? 

They are, more especially the two former : the " magic 
lake" and the ''boggy syrtis " blending their "light and 
shade" in every quarter. 

First, then, as to lakes : I should like to know their 
origin, their economy in the physical distribution, and how 
it happens that some countries have so many, while others 
have so few ? 

Lakes are produced by springs, by rivers, by rains ; and 
that country which unites many springs, rivers, and much 
rain with an uneven surface has, as a general rule, many 
lakes. Lakes yield fish, feed canals, suppl}' water-power 
for machinery, are always at hand for irrigation and drain- 
age, and constitute a fascinating element of natural scenery. 

Are not some lakes detached from the sea ? 

Yes, the freshwater hafFs of Prussia, and the salt lagoons 
of southern France are of this class, having been detached 
by drifting sands. 

What is the entire freshwater superficies of Ireland ? 

It is computed at about 630,000 acres, constituting the 
one-thirty-third part of the whole island. 

How is this large quantity distributed ? 

Yery unequally. Ulster and Gonnaught (the ancient Leagh 
Modha) containing more than twice as much as Munster 
and Leinster (the ancient Leagh Conn). The exact pro- 
portions are as follow : — ■ 

Ulster 214,956 acres. 

Gonnaught 212,864 " 

Munster 151,381 " 

Leinster .---.-.- 51,624 " 



[18] 

I perceive by this, that the five counties of Connaught 
monopolize more than four times as much fresh water as 
the twelve counties of Leinster? 

Very true ; and stranger still, one county in that small- 
est of the provinces has nearly twice as much as all Lein- 
ster ! 

Pray which is that ? 

Galway. This county, besides a great many small lakes, 
contains about thirty navigable ones, the smallest being 
not less than a mile in length, while the largest has fifty 
miles of inland shore, and is much bigger than Lough Lo- 
mond, the must extensive in Great Britain. 

I suspect, then, this county of Galwaj' has very little 
dry land ? 

A very hasty conclusion ! This is the largest county, 
but one, in Ireland, and has fifteen times as much land 
as water ; while this water is the secret of those scenic 
attractions which tourists write so much about, when they 
have visited Connemara and the Irish Highlands. 



CHAPTER XIII. — PARTICULAR LAKES. 

I have read and heard a good deal about the Lakes of 
Killarney, where are they ? 

Killarney is the name of a small town in the south-west 
of Ireland and county of Kerry, adjacent to which are 
those celebrated Lakes. 

"What constitutes the peculiar in this region of scenery ? 

We shall come to the topic of scenery and the subject 
of Killarney by-and-by ; at present, our object is more 
statistical than descriptive. 

What, then, is the extent of the Lakes ? 

The triune lake of KiUarney, anciently named Lough 
Lean, though larger than Windermere — the only respect- 
able sheet of fresh water in England— is still but nine 
square miles; and, therefore, not to be compared, in size, 
with the great lakes of Ulster, Connaught, or Scotland. 

What other lakes in Ireland are celebrated by the poet, 
the painter, or the tourist? 



[19] 

The very small lakes of Blarney and Grougane-Bara, in 
Cork ; Glendalough, in Wicklow, 

" — that lake, whose gloomy shore 

Sky-lark never warbled o'er, 

Where the cliffs hang high and steep." 

the Devil's Punch-Bowl and Carah, in Kerry; Gill in Sligo ; 
Loughs Salt and Derg, in Donegal, with other small lakes 
in the west and north, and the great lakes of Neagh, Cor- 
rib and Ei*ne. 

What are these lakes remarkable for ? 

Chiefly, for scenic, romantic or historic associations : Blar- 
ney for no scenery whatever, but the funny traditions of 
a name, derived from the palavering old castle which stands 
on its bank and coaxes the tourist ; Gougane-Bara, for a 
dreary loveliness, which has provoked one of the finest ef- 
forts of Callanan ; Glendalough, for gloomy grandeur and 
Dead -Sea legends; the Punch Bowl, for the repulsive as- 
pect of its dark Satanic scowl as it belches itself over the 
crags of Mangerton ; Loughs Carah and Gill, for placid 
loveliness ; Lough Salt, for its romantic altitude, great depth 
and pellucidity ; Derg, for its pilgrimages ; Neagh, lor its 
well-known properties of petrifying ; and Corrib and Erne, 
as exceptions to the general rule — that large lakes are un- 
scenic. 

Please express, in figures, the comparative extents of the 
principal Irish lakes ? 

Passing b}' all lakes under a thousand acres in extent, 
because the number of such in Ireland is almost countless, 
we find about forty which fully come up to that standard. 
Of these, the tripartite sheet of Cai'ah is the most lovely 
and best known : — 

Carah, 1,000 acres. 

Derg, (Donegal,) 2,000 

Gill, 2,000 

Killarney 6,000 

Allen 8,000 

Conn (Mayo,) 13,000 

Mask, (do.) 25,000 

Ree, (Shannon,) -.-.._ 26,500 



[20] 

Derg, (Shannon,) - - - - - - 29,000 " 

Erne, -------- 3'7,000 " 

Corrib, (Galway,) ------ 43,000 " 

"The Monarch Lake," - - _ _ 101,000 " 

I perceive you have omitted here all fractions of a thou- 
sand ? 

Yes, for the sake of memory. The exact area of the 
Killarney Lakes, for instance, is, G,231 ; and ofLough Neagh, 
101,369, which includes Lough Beg (or Little Lough Neagh) 
a lake about half the size of the Kerry paragon, connected 
with the great lake by a channel similar to the Long Range 
at Lough Lean, or the straits at Enniskillen. 

What place does Lough Neagh hold among the lakes of 
Europe ? 

in point of scenery little can be said of it ; but, in point 
of size, it covers a greater superficies than the four larg- 
est lakes of Great Britain, and is the most extensive sheet 
of fresh water west of the Alps, and south of the Baltic. 
No lake in France or the Peninsula, in Holland or Belgium, 
in Prussia, German}^ or Denmark covers one hundred and 
fifty square miles, the area of Lough Neagh. 



CHAPTER XIV. — BOG, OR PEAT. 

I see, now, that Ireland holds a prominent place among 
the lake countries of the Continent ; but what is its place 
in respect to that gloomy formation, known in P^ngland by 
the name " peat," and in L-eland by that of "bog?" 

Decidedly, the first. I know no country in which peat 
occupies an eighth of the surface, but Ireland ; and hence 
it is, that the word "bog" rccals the idea of Ireland, just 
as the terms " Sahara," " prairie," " steppe," " dyke," " par- 
amera," recal the geographical peculiarities of Africa, Amer- 
ica, Russia, Holland, and Spain, respectively. 

Does not each of these features imply a natural drawback 
to the social progress of each of those territories ? 

In an agricultural sense, it does ; and in every social 
sense, the barren steppes of Southern Russia, and the sand 
tides and deserts of the torrid zone, are inimical to animal 



[21] 

and vegetable existence ; but prairies and bogs are remov- 
able, and have a eommercial value not to be slighted. 

Let me have a full conception of the commercial value 
of the latter. 

Among other uses to which peat can be applied, the fol- 
lowing are foremost: 

1. — It is an excellent domcstiic fuel; not so calorific as 
coal, for certain manufactures, but far preferable to the latter 
for culinary, laundry, and other purposes requiring cleanli- 
ness, and moderate heat. 

2. — It is a good manure, singl}- or in combination, for 
certain soils. 

3 — It yields a brilliant gas-light, full}" equal to that of 
the best bituminous coal, for lighting shops, mansions, and 
streets, 

4. — It has antiseptic properties which render it useful 
for sanatorj" purposes, make it a good deodoriser, and re- 
tarder of decomposition. 

5. — After yielding illuminating gas, it leaves a charcoal 
in the retort, which is of more commercial value at j^resent 
than the original turf itself, from which that charcoal is 
generated. 

6. — It yields pai-affiue for the making of candles, which 
rival the best wax in whiteness of material and brilliancy 
of light. 

7. — Its tar can be turned into sealing wax, eliminating, 
after combustion, the highest polish and tenacity. 

8. — "Bog-oak" bijouterie is a well-known branch of the 
practical Fine Arts, constituting a distinct dej)artmcnt of 
the jewelry and fanc}' trinket trades. The oak, yew, and other 
jet-black, nne-grainfjd timbers found in the bogs of Ireland 
have given rise to this beautiful business, which is now 
spread over the British Isles, and other countries. 

I was not aware before, that bog-stuff could be turned 
to so many important ends. 

It is only very recently that some of these applications 
of peat have been discovered. In the autumn of 1855, a 
young Irish genius startled the jiress and the public of that 
quarter, by lighting his establishment in Marj^ street, Dublin, 
with turf-gas. 



[22] 

What is his name? 

E. L. Johnson, who has got all the credit of a discovery 
which must necessarily interest Ireland more than any other 
nation (badly circumstanced as Ireland is in respect to min- 
eral fuel) by turning the only gloomy feature of that country 
into the most brilliant. 

Is not Ireland dependent on England for coal ? 

In the present statu quo of commercial relations^ it is. 
All the cities, towns and houses lighted by gas in Ireland, 
had to get that gas in some part of Britain, chiefly in- 
the north of England. But now, " imagine an hour's light 
from a sod of turf, weighing only three quarters of a pound !" 

Am I to understand that Ireland has no coal? 

By no means. A very extensive coal formation spreads 
from the center of Leinster over the north and west of 
Munster to the Atlantic, the Kilkenny and Tipperary seg- 
ments of which are well worked. But this coal is anthracite, 
yielding little or no smoke, and therefore no flammable gas. 

Has Ireland, then, no bitumenous or gas-genei'ating coal? 

Yes, at Coal Island, in Tyrone, and other places, which 
coal fields,, however, are, in the present state of our know- 
ledge, comparatively limited. 

Has Mr. Johnson followed up bis discovery? 

He has by another discovery, or, rather, invention — a 
turf- gas distilling retort. He next took out a patent to 
secure his property in the new discoveries ; and has now 
(1858) lighted, with Bog-of-Allan turf, a few country gen- 
tlemen's mansions, and the village of Street, in Westmeath. 



CHAPTER XV. — PARTICULAR PEAT-FIELDS. 

Is the peat formation of Ireland one vast bog, or sev- 
eral detached peat-fields ? 

The latter : every one of the thirty - two counties has 
more or less turf- soil ; but six-sevenths of all the peat in 
Ireland lie between the two legs of an isosceles triangle, 
which has the county of Dublin, and about half of Wick- 
low for its apex, and the entire coast of Connaught for 
its base. 



[23] 

In other woi'ds ? 

Well, in other words, if a line be drawn from the Hill 
of Howth to Sligo, and another from Wicklow Head to the 
Port of Galwaj', the}^ will embrace all the bog in Ire- 
land, except a seventh part, which seventh part is scattered 
over the rest of the country, very much to its decided ad- 
vantage. 

Looking on the map for these points you have named, 
I perceive the two lines are not parallel, converging as thej^ 
they do towards the east, and opening, so as to embrace 
all Connaught, on the west? 

Precisely so ; for the Leinster section of this great peat 
zone — popularly known as the Bog of Allan — is only about 
a third of the whole, leaving two-thirds to lie at the other 
side of the Shannon. 

Connaught, then, must be very much encumbered with 
a comparatively unproductive surface? 

So it is : here are the figures : — 

Entire area of Connaught _ . - - 4,392,t)43 acres. 
Bog, lake and mountain .... 1,900,002 " 



Remainder 2.480.041 " 

I fancy this is a happy illustration of the absolute ne- 
cessity of studying geography, for the proper understand- 
ing of history, and the better explanation of social rela- 
tions ? 

It certainly explains the historical fact, that Connaught 
continued a kingdom up to the reign of Henry the Fourth. 
It accounts for the present primitive habits of its thin po 
pulation in the rural districts; tixphiitts a certain popular 
saying, wliich facetiously bids >'ou g«» to Connaught or a 
certain other place; and, in a word, lies at the bottom of 
other social problems respecting this interesting, and other- 
wise beautiful territory. 

Please let us now go into Ulster and Munster. 

Antrim, in the former province, and Kerry, in the latter, 
monopolize a good deal of the northern and southern peat 
developments. The basin of Lough Neagh has a rim of about 
sixty thousand acres of turf-soil. Cavan county has no fewer 



[24] 

than ninety bogs. Tipperary, not a titho of that number, 
yet nearly twice the quantity, covering about thirty thou- 
sand acres. One patch, in the Jutland of Chire, occupies 
a somewhat smaller space ; and other scattered patches in 
Desmond, amount, in the aggregate, to about half a million. 

[Mease let me know your authority for all those figures. 

I have taken them from a very elaborate survey of the 
bogs of Ireland, made some fifty years ago, by order of Par- 
liament, when it was in contemplation to add, by drainage, 
one or two millions of virgin acres to the domain of the 
plough in Ireland. 

Has that idea been realized ? 

No ; but the magic wand of private industry has touched 
the liiourning rsoil in a thousand places, and lo ! all rouud 
the country, the golden corn waves where the black bog- 
hole yawned. 

What is the origin of this strange formation? 

Peat is decomposed vegetable matter, generally attributed 
to decayed forests. Ireland, though now comparatively des- 
titute of native timber, was covered with woods so late as 
two centuries ago. 

Then other countries ought to have bogs, as well as Ireland. 

So they have. Bogs are plentiful in the north of this Con- 
tinent, and in many of the States. Denmai'k has much bog. 
So has Germany. Kussia has extensive peat-fields. Were 
the swamps of Hungary true bog, the peasantry there should 
have a better fuel than dung. One county in England (Lan- 
cashire,) has sixteen thousand acres of peat. In short, peat 
is more or less abundant all round the globe. 

In a ph3'siological point of view, what is the influence of 
this great peat development? 

Giraldus Cambrensis (Gerald of Wales), the ancient to- 
pographer of Ireland, says, that in his time (the 12th cen- 
tury) the Irish knew no sickness from the cradle to the 
grave, and, consequently, had no need of doctors. This is 
literally true of the rural districts at the present day. The 
fens of Lincolnshire, and other parts of England, are low, 
stagnant and unwholesome, but the Irish bogs are genci - 
ally high, and never unhealthy. 



[25] 



CHAPTER XVI. — SPRINaS ANH '= HOLY-WELLS. 

Having heretofore explained causes before you described 
effects, please let us preface our conversation on the rivers of 
Ireland, by an inquiry into their origin, and an explanation, of 
the phenonnenon — that the " myriad myriads " of streams, which 
have been pouring into the sea since the creation, do not cause 
the " abj^ss of waters " to overflow the land ? 

Rivers come from the sea and go to the sea , so the sea ne%'er 
receives one drop of water which has not come from the sea : 
that reservoir which gets only what it has given out, is always 
able to hold what it has held. Witness artificial fountains. 

But rivers are fresh and the sea is salt? 

This is merely the difference between filtration and solution. 
Clays are porous and rocks have fissures ; and clays and rocks, 
which constitute the crust of the earth, act as natural filters 
through which the great pressure of the ocean forces the water, 
which loses its eaithy and saline ingredients in the passage up- 
wards. 

How, then, docs it happen that some springs are quite 
salt? 

Just as it happens that some taste of iron, others of lead, 
and more of suljjhur — on account of local causes which have 
their explanation in geology. Hence, our hot and cold, "soft' 
and " hard," chalybeate, sulphuric, and other medicinal springs, 
and " holy-wells." 

What are holy-wells? 

This is the general name in Ireland for springs which have 
curative properties ; the peasantry there, being an instinctively 
religious people, refer all such properties to the Creator, and 
always accompany their visits to such places with prayers and 
other acts of grateful devotion. 

Does no other religious element enter into this devotional 
feeling? 

Yes ; these holy -wells are frequently associated, geographi- 
cally and historically, with ancient religious foundations, whose 
venerable ruins are mirrored in them by day, and cover them 
with their sacred shadows at night. Others are dedicated to 
saints, who, when on earth, guarded them from profanation, 
and were among the first to point out their virtues. All these 



[2C] 

circun\stanees invest those fountains with a charactfr which is 
approeiuled to the fullest extent by a naturally devotional and 
simple-minded people. 

Are there manv such in the island? 

It abounds with them. Ever}' province, every county, almost 
every baron}' has its preeminent or special holy-well. Some 
counties have several ; Down is one of these, so is Tipperar}', 
and so Coi-k, Kerry, Mayo, Donegal, Fermanagh, and others. 
Noted wells are to be found near Enniskillen in Fermanagh ; at 
Castlescreen, Armallan, Struel, Granshaw. and elsewhere in 
Down ; at Fethard, Clonmel, Cashel, Doneskea, and other places 
in Tipperar}' ; at Ball, in Mayo; at Ballyvourney, in Cork ; at 
Aungier-Street and Portabello, in the Metropolis; at Chapel- 
Eyon, in Westmeath ; at Iloliwell, in Sligo — in short, all through 
the country. 

Please divest them of their religions complexion, and then 
compare them, in a ])hysical sense, with the fashionable resorts, 
of the same kind, in the south of England and on the continent ? 

The hot and cold springs of Mallow, the anti-scorbutic and 
anti-chronic spa at Clonmel. the ])(>werful chal^'beates of Dublin, 
Ballycastle, and Ballygj-awly in Tyrone; the alum spring near 
Clough, in Down, and others on the west coast. The sulphu- 
ric waters of Ballynahinch and Ball3'])helic in Cork; the cele- 
brated worm-killing and detersive spa at Castle-Connell, the far. 
known Granshaw, " being equal in efficacy to the strongest of 
English spas," the four wonderful wells of Struel, characterized 
by English writers as " miraculous," and the famous Ballyspel- 
lan, so eulogized by Swift and Delany — all hold a respectable 
place among the most celebrated curative waters of Europe. 



CHAPTER XVII.— RIVERS — THE SHANNON. 

Where so many springs of one rare class exist, 1 suspect there 
must be a great many of the common kind, whence many rivers 
and rivulets are inevitable — please name the ])rincipal? 

The Shannon, the Munstcr Blackwater, the Barrow, with its 
sisters the Nore and the Suir, the T^ee, the Liffey, the Boyne, 
and the Leinster Blackwater, the Upper and Lower Bann, the 
Lagan, the Foyle, the Eoe, the Erne, the Ulster Blackwatei', 
the Main, and its neighbor, the tSix-Milc-Water, the Slaney, the 



[27] 

Baiidon, the Feale, the Fergus, the Maig, the Suck with the two 
Brosnas, the Innj' and the Nenagh, (five tributaries of the Shan- 
non,) the Gilly, the Moy, the Dodder, Kenmare River, and the 
poetic Avoca, with a network of feeders and less-noted streams. 

What place does the Shannon hold among the British and 
European rivers? 

Being an island-stream, of course, it can not be as long as the 
great ones of a continent, and the length of a river, generally, 
determines its breadth. The first European discoverers of the 
two Americas, at once pronounced them to be continents from 
merely beholding the vast mouths of their rivers, for the mouths 
of rivers tell plainly enough the distances thej' have traveled, 
and the contributions they have levied on the way. The Slian- 
non, then, must not be compared in length, breadth, or depth 
with any of the great continental rivers, but of island-strecwis, 
it is one of the first on the globe. 

Is it larger than the Severn, the Tay, or the Thames .so highly 
eulogised by Denham, in his Cooper's Hill — 

"Though deep yet clear, though gentle yet not dull; 
Strong without rage, without o'erfiowing full." 

Denham was an Irish poet who praised the Thames, and 
Spenser was an English poet who j)raiscd 

"The mighty Shannon spreading like a sea." 

The Severn is conimonly regarded as the longest stream in the 
British Isles, by a few miles over the Thames, but the Scotch 
Tay has a Itirger volume than either; while the Shannon, on 
account of its great expansions, appears to comprehend, at any 
one time, as much fresh water as any two of them. 

I see, by this map, that the Shannon rises in Lough Allen, 
county of Leitrim — is that correct? 

No; it rises in the mountaiu-baron}' of Tullyhaw, county of 
Cavan, and instantly takes its place as an important stream. 
But it appears not more suddenly than it disappears, plunging 
down again into regions of gloom, whence it issues once more, 
(like the (luadiana, in Spain, and the Lesse, in Belgium,) after 
a short subterranean sojourn, and then hastens to take a bath 
in Lough Allen, which it enters at the north end, and leaves at 
the opposite, holding precisely the same relation to that expan- 
sion that it does to the others on its course. 



1.28] 

Proceed ; I like to see a little more of this fine stream. 

At this point, it is seized upon to form ;i county, baronial, 
parochial, and townland boundar}' line, Avbich it docs for two 
hundred miles — its journey fi-om Lough Allen to the "wide, 
wide sea." Pursuing a southerlj- course, to relieve Lough Key 
of its surplus, which it does near Carrick, it suddonl}- turns 
eastward to embrace its little sisters, the Rinn and the Camlin, 
leaving behind, as if memorials of the meeting, the little ex- 
pansions of Loughs Bodarrig and Forbes. At this latter point, 
it assumes the higher function of a provincial rubicon, and, as 
if to mark the event, turns out of its Avay to make tl>at forty- 
squaremile displa}^ of its capacity — Lough Ree! Here the 
Inny enters and falls down before it; several towns come to 
look at it, and three counties allow it to drag the sides out of 
them to make room for it. Moving stately onward through 
Athlone, it obligingly winds its way, now to the left and now 
to the right, as it turns to Leinster to relieve the two Brosnas, 
and to Con naught to be fed by the Suck. Thus recruited, it is 
prepared for a still greater display — the forty-five square miles 
of Lough Derg! This effort obliges it to rest, while receiving 
the compliments of Lough O'Grady, the Nenagh, and other de 
pendents. It is now within ten miles of Limerick, and, impa- 
tient to enter its capital like a queen, dashes grandly forward 
to the " City of the Treaty," at a speed nearly twenty times as 
great as the average of that which it made before since it left 
Lough Allen ! Thus it leaps into the arms of the tide which 
comes up to that cit}' sixty miles to meet it, carrj'ing it out in 
triumph through the sea like Lough Fergus to the bosom of its 
mother, the 

" Deep and dark-blue ocean." 



CHAPTER XVIII— RIVERS OP THE SOUTH. 

Which is the next river to the Shannon, in point of size? 

The beautiful Blackwater. 

But there are several of that name in Ireland? 

Yes, but only one is understood as the Blackwater, claiming 
the determinating article on the grounds of size and beauty. 
This is the Irish Rhine. 



[29] 

Where does this river take its rise? 

In the Kerry rnoutituiiis, west of Castle-Island, and flowing 
almost due south, forms the boundary between Cork and Ker- 
ry for man}" miles. It then turns eastward and traverses the 
whole north of that largest of the counties, in the same easterly 
direction, receiving the Tarrai^lin, the Mill, the Aubawn, the 
Oundalo, the Alio, the Aubeg, the Funcheon, and several 
other streams, as it passes near the towns of Mill-street, 
Kanturk, Buttevant, Doneraile, Castletovvn-Iioche, Kilvvorth, 
and riglitthrough Mallow and Fermoy ; still eastward, it enters 
the county of Waterford, visiting the famous Lismore, and then 
turning, at almost a right angle, to the sea, is wedded hy tlio 
Bride and beds in the spacious harbor of Youghal. 

How many miles has it now traveled? 

Very nearly as many as the Shannon — about two hundred, 
and its area covers about twelve hundred square miles. 

What extent has the basin of the Shannon ? 

Near four times that figure. 

Where are the other Black waters? 

One joins the Boyne, (near Navan) which flows into the Irish 
Sea at Drogheda, where it is spanned by one of the most eleva- 
ted and magnificent railwa}' viaducts in the three kingdoms. 
The other Blackwater mentioned is in Tyrone, and forms the 
entire north-western boundary of the county Armagh, and about 
half the northern boundary of Monaghan. A fourth is in Wex- 
ford, and a fifth in Longford, but this last is a mere streamlet. 

Which is the third largest river in Ireland? 

Perhaps, the Barrow, which name implies boundary. At 
present, it is, in part, a boundaiy for six counties. In the time 
of the Pale, it was regarded for ages as the western limits of 
Hibernia-Anglicana; and still more remotely, it divided lly- 
Kinsellagh from Mumhan. 

Where does the Barrow rise? 

In the cast plateau of the Slieve Bloom mountains, winding 
a very circuitous course around the north and east of the 
Queen's county, passing by the important towns of Mount- 
mellick, Portarlington, Monastereven, Ath}^ Carlow, Leighlin- 
bridgo, and New Boss, forming nearly the whole eastern bound- 
ary of Kilkenny, and swallowing up many streams, the prin- 
cipal of which are the Little Barrow, in the King's county, and 
the Burren, in Carlow. 



[30] 

By your calling the Siiir and the Nore its sisters, I infer the 
three must meet somewhere? 

They do ; the Nore near New Eoss, and the Suir below Wa- 
terford. Both are important rivers; the latter is navigable all 
the way to Clonmel, and the other united stream, up to New 
Ross. 

What towns are situated on each of these rivers? 

The Suir is specially the river of Tipperary, visiting nearly 
all the principal towns of that tine county, namely, Tcmplemore, 
Thurles, Cashei, Golden, Cahir, Clonmel, and Carrick, and 
forming the entire southern boundary of Kilkenny, and about 
half that of Tipperary. The principal towns on the Nore, are 
Castletown, Abbeyleix, and Durrow, in the Queen's county, 
with Ballyragget, "the Marble City," and Thomastown, in 
Kilkenny. 

Is it true, that these three important rivers spring out of the 
same well ? 

This is a common notion, arising, perhaps, from the fact, 
that the Nore, which holds a middle place between the other 
two, has a pair of arms which almost shake hands (so to speak) 
with its distant sisters, as they just tumble out of their cradles. 

What is the extent of this treble basin? 

About a third less than that of the Shannon, or three and a 
half thousand square miles. 



CHAPTER XIX. — OTHER LEINSTER AND MUNSTER RIVERS. 

I shall be satisfied with a visit to the three next most impor- 
tant rivers of Leinster? 

These arc the LifFey, the Boyne, and the Slaney. 

Is not this Bo3me the river upon whose banks was fought, 
on the 1st of July, 1690, that celebrated battle which decided 
the succession to the British Crown ? 

It is ; and on this account its name is well-known to foreign- 
ers, better, it appears, than that of any other stream in the 
British Isles. Bnt,jam satis — this is enough of history for the 
present; we shall come to the political and historical geography 
of the kingdom by-and-by, the natural has precedence. 

Is this river, then, remarkable in any physical respect? 

Not particularly so. It has many feeders, flows through a 



[31] 

very fertile country and a ver^- unfertile tract — the Bog of Al- 
lan — is gemmed Avith many pieces of sweet scenery, and with 
its partner, the Blackwater, which comes to it from Lough Ka- 
more, at Virginia in Cavan, has a water-shed little less circum- 
scribed th:in that of the hitter's great namesake. 

Now, as to the Liffey ? 

The toi'tuous and pretty Anna Liffey rises in the Wicklow 
mountains and ftiUs into Dublin l^ay, which is distant from its 
source not quite a dozen miles ; yet it has a course of seventy ! 
— a beautiful instance of social economy, founded in nature. 

What class of river is the Slane}', aiid where is it? 

The Slaney is a fine stream, longer and larger than the Liffey, 
and, like the hitter, coming down from the granite plateaus of 
Wicklow. It waters Stratford and Baltinglass in that county, 
Rathville and Tullow in Carlow, Newtownbarry, Enniscorthy 
and Wexford, in Wexford; and Gore}' and Ferns are washed 
by its left arm, the Bann. 

You have not yet told me what river has formed the great 
harbor of Cork? 

The Lee, a wild, expansive stream of much volume, and the 
second river in Desmond, (South Munster.) It ri.ses in the ro- 
mantic Gouganc Barra, 

" Wliere Allua of songs rushes forth like an arrow," 

a small mountain -lake, in the west of Cork, and pursues a due 
easterly course, almost parallel with that of its bigger fellow- 
traveler to the north. It floods the low grounds on its course, 
forms many holmes and some small lakes, takes in the Sullane 
near Macroom, and like its great neighbor, embraces a Bride. 
After all these exploits, it forms a delta, and the second city in 
the island constitutes a little "Emerald Isle" in itself. 

What extent of basin has the Lee? 

Over seven hundred square miles. 

Any thing further respecting the rivers of Munster and 
Leinster? 

A great deal, if room and time permitted. There are twenty 
other good streams in Munster, and about as many more in 
Tjeinster. Of the former, the Bandon, in Cork, is perhaps the 
most important in point of eize. The Fiesk pours into the 
Lakes of Killarney, and the Loun out of them. The P^'eaie and 
Main, and the beautiful Carah are also in Kerr}'. The Maig, 



[32] 

Deel and Abingdon are in Limerick. The Fergus, Dunbeg, 
Forsett and (a sixth) Blackwuter flow in Clare, and the Clo- 
dagh, Mahon, Colligan and Licket belong to Waterfbrd. Of 
this class Leinster owns the Fane. Glyde and Dee in Louth, the 
Nanny and Deel in Meath, the Frankford, Clodagh and Silver 
liiver in King's county, the Dromree in Kilkenny and theYar- 
tiy, Aubeg, Glen-Cree and Derry Water, in Wicklow. 

I sec, now, that these two provinces are well compensated 
for the comparative fewness of their lakes, as stated in a former 
chapter. 

They are. Put ingenuity on the rack, and it can not con- 
ceive, all things considered, a better distribution of water than 
that of river. It is scarcely possible for a territory to have too 
many streams , they are the arteries and veins of the body na- 
tional, for the absence of which no other natural gifts can com- 
pensate. 

Are not some countries very deficient in this respect? 

Yes, whole regions of the Torrid Zone, and whole districts of 
Russia and the Spanish Peninsula. Madrid, itself, is in the 
heart of one of those arid districts. 

Is there any town or townland in Ireland without springs, 
a river, or a lake? 

If such there be, I don't know it; but some places, where 
there is no river or lake, suffer temporary inconvenience, in very 
hot summers, by the drying up of the fountains. Cashel, in 
Tipperary, for instance, and other places, like the "City of 
Kings," not touched by any river. 

Does much rain fall in Ireland? 

The maximum. This island is considered the wettest coun- 
try of Europe, and, if so, then of the Old World. 

Can you convey a distinct idea of this? 

Yes. Dr. Kane, the great industrial authority on Ireland, 
states it in specific figures. He says thirty-six inches of rain 
fall, one year with another, in that country. 

What effect has this great fall of rain ? 

It makes the atmosphere gloomy more frequently than busi- 
ness or pleasure would like; but it is the secret of those innu- 
merable springs, lakes, and rivers of which we have spoken, 
and to it must also be ascribed that perpetual verdure which has 
obtained for this fertile country the very appropriate and beau- 
tiful appellation of the "Emerald Isle." 






CIIArTER XX. RIVERS OF THE NORTH. 

When speaking of the lakes, you matched Ulster and Con- 
naught against Leinster and Munster, as having so much 
more fresh water than the latter : how far do the rivers of 
the former contribute to produce that preponderance ? 

As respects Connaught, to a very trifling degree; but the 
rivers of Ulster formed an important item in that calculation. 
Which are the jjrincipal ? 

The Foyle, the Bann, and the Lagan. Of these, the last 
named is also the last in point of size, but the first in a com- 
mercial sense, being the Littey of the North. It resembles the 
metropolitan river, also, in length and tortuosity ; and its 
waters arc peculiarly adapted to tliat flourishing manufacture 
which is spread along its course, and turns almost ever}^ rood 
of it to account. This is regarded as one of the first bleach- 
ing and industrial streams belonging to Europe. 
Please to trace its course by means of the map. 
Like the Bann, it rises in the mountains of Down, and 
attracted towards Lough Neagh by the inclined plane of that 
basin, it passes by Dromore and Moira, suddenly turning, at 
this latter place, towards the east, for the accommodation of 
Lisburn and Belfast, where it meets the Irish Sea, and carries 
out half the commerce of LTlster. 

Is this, then, the seat of the linen manufacture in the 
north ? 

This branch of industry is spread over nearly all Ulstei", 
but more especiall}^ over the three counties of Antrim, Down, 
and Armagh ; perhaps, because it was here, upon the Lagan, 
which belongs to the two counties of Antrim and Down, that 
this business was first established in the north, about a hundretl 
and fifty years ago. A shrewd Belgian, whom political 
troubles drove from his own country, and who was, probably, 
induced to settle down here by the peculiar adantibilitv of 
this whole district for growing ami idoaching flax, selected 
Lisburn, on the banks of the Lagan, for this pur])ose. Ever 
since, this locality has been the head-quarters of the linen 
manufacture in Ireland. 

Anything particular about the two other rivers? 



[34] 

The B:\nn is also a g;ood blcacliing water, and, like the 
Erne, the Liffe}', the Foyle, and others, is rich in salmon. It 
rises to the south of tlie La2:an, at a considerable elevation in 
the Mourne Moutains, and makes directl}' for the common level 
of Ijough Xeui^h, which it enters at the south, after laving and 
leaving Bju^bridge and Portadown. This is the Upper Bann, 
Avhich is sepirated from the Lower Bann by the twenty-two 
miles' length of that lake. 

How high i» the lake above the sea? 

Only forty-eight feet ; so the second Bann has a gentle flow 
favorable to navigation, at the same time that it is a good 
wide stream. 

Looking on the map, I see now that vessels can come up 
into the heart of Vlster, and harbor in Lough Neagh — is that 
so ?. 

Whilw maps imply more than they directly assert, they also 
assert more than shoukl be implied, and herein is the great 
distinction between geography and topography. A geograph- 
ical map has Led you into this mistake, which a topographical 
map would correct by pointing out a local obstruction near 
Colerain, which prohibits the full navigation of the river. 
In what county does the Fo3de take its rise? 
It would be hard to say, as this is the most ramitied river in 
the whole country. Three of its branches are considerable 
streams in themselves, and all have ditt'crent names, some of 
which are quite local, so that the same stream has more than 
one designation. The name '•Fo3'le"' applies only to the trunk, 
commencing at the junction of the Finn and the Mourne. 
Tyrone, however, is the main water-shed of this, perhaps, the 
most extensive single river-basin in the Island, with one 
exception. 

CHAPTER XXI. OTHER NORTHERN REVERS. 

Which are the other principal streams of this quarter? 

As already mentioned, the Blackwater in Tyi'one, and that 
in Cavan ; the Erne, Colebrook, and Cladagh, in Fermanagh ; 
the Callen, in Armagh ; the Newry Water and the several 
AVhitewaters, in Down ; the Finn, in Cavan, as well as that 
attached to the left side of the Foyle, in Donegal; the Roe, 



[35] 

which bounds through " Deer Parks," in Dcrry. and the 
Foughan, also in the same count}^; the Main, wliich is the 
chief of the local streams of Antrim, if the Lower Bann 
does not interdict it from that jn-erogative ; the Bush, in the 
same county, which passes a rugged course through the 
brakes of Dunluce; the Derg, from gloomy Lough Derg, 
though rising in Donegal. l)elongs to Tyrone, as one of the 
many arms of the Strule: all which arms are baffled of their 
individualities in the Foyle. 

Now, as to Connaught? 

The Moy, in Mayo, is the ordy river of the west which 
can run a respectable ract^ with the tirst-class streams of the 
other jDrovinces. 

What is the extent of its basin? 

Rising in the bogs of Costello and setting in Killala Baj', 
it is the center of a slope covering one thousand square 
miles, or little less than that of tlie Boyne and its branches. 

Are not the principal ]>orts and inlets of .that province 
formed by, or associated with, considerable streams. 

They are not. The two principal ports of Connaught are 
Galway and Sligo, whose commercial and sanatory interests 
are well consulted by two lakes, respectively, Lough Corrib 
and Lough Gill. And though, as respects size, the latter is 
barely a twentieth part of the former, it sends out a stream 
which is both deep and wide, and constantly ploughed by 
steamers up to Dromahaire, in Leitrim. 

Am I right this time in concluding, that vessels of burthen 
can come up from Sligo Bay to this last named place, and thus 
to within a few miles of Lough Allen, and the whole course 
of the Shannon ? 

No. Though the Gill}- has a fall of only twenty-on* feet 
from Dromahaire to Lowwater, in Sligo harbor, a distance 
of mercl}' eight miles, or about two and a half feet per mile — 
a sufficiently gentle flow for navigation — yet. owing to a 
ledge of rocks which crosses and elevates the bed of the 
stream near the center of the town, producing violent rapids, 
all navigation at this point is at present impossible. 

Why not blast these little impediments out of the way? 

Because not yet sufficiently felt, and the requirements of 
commerce have not called for such a course. When this call 



[30] 



has gone forth, those "adamantine bars" will fly into '-thin 
air,"' like those of the Barrow and the Shannon. 



CIIAPTKR XXII. THE ISLANDS. 

Ilaving now seen the broad features of the conntiy, as 
catalogued in the last jmragraph of the fourth chapter, it 
appears to me that the islands round the coast constituie 
another feature of this class. 

(,)f the Irish islands, (which are generalh' small, tlie smallest 
being mere rocks,) Achill, Yalentia, Si.uth Arran More, and 
Katldin are the largest. 

Where are these? 

The last named is four or five miles fi'om Fair Head, in 
Antrim, and the others are otf the Avest coast. 

What is the extent of the largest? 

Achill, which has all the ai)pearance of a fragment of Achill 
promontory, in Mayo, has a length of near a dozen miles, 
from east to west, and wants but little of measuring as much 
from north to south. 

Has it, then, a superficies approaching the square of that 
number, as the data seem to imply? 

It has not. This island consists of two promontories, meet- 
ing at nearly a right angle, and enclosing a spacious gulf, 
termed Tramore Bay, a name which is also ajjplied to a 
fashionable watering-place in Waterford. These two promon- 
tories have an area of about thirty square miles, constituting 
the largest island off the Irish coast. 

Is it, then, inhabited. , 

Certainly: but its population is thin, because tiie land is 
rocky and rough. Some parts, however, are verdant and 
])roductive ; but the fisheries are the main reliance of its 
hardy inhabitants. 

Any other peculiarity of this island ? 

It is separated from the mainland by dangerous rapids^ has 
a mural and sublime coast, mountains and valleys, bays and 
harbors, lakes and rivulets. Slieve More, and Croghan Moun- 
tain exceed two thousand feet above tlie surges, commanding- 
prospects wild and sublimating. 

What of the other islands named? 



[37] 

YiUentia, which also looks like a fragment of the coast — 
the claj'-skite coast of Kerry — is an important little island, 
in an industrial sense, being- very fertile, and ahounding in 
excellent slate, which it cx2:)orts to all jiarts of the British 
Isles. It forms a deep and safe harbor with the mainland, 
admitting vessels to sail round it either way. 

What is the extent of Yalentia? 

It is near seven miles by two — about the size of Arrau 
]Morc. 

Where is Arran More? 

In Galway Bay ; the largest of a group, as the name im- 
ports. But there is another of the same name, otf the coast 
of Donegal, which is not quite so large. The former was once 
a place of some note, as its ecclesiastical and other ruins still 
testily. This is the spot from which Clanbrasail, or the 
"Enchanted Island," the imagined paradise of the ancient 
Celts, was supposed to be seen. 

What grounds could there be for such a superstition ? 

Probabl}', ocular delusion ; though it does not ai)pear that 
such is connected with this island or district now. Ocular 
delusion of this kind is a fact known to all geographers ; for 
instance, the deceptive mirzas of the Saharic wastes. Mar- 
iners, at sea, see ships in the air; and there is a mountain in 
Ilungar}*, from the summit of which the spectator may behold 
an ajrial giant, imitating all his actions. 

What kind of an islet is Rathlin? 

A dreary waste, though pretty sizable, and inhabited. 

Is not this the spot of which we read in the life of Eobert 
Bruce, the Scotch Washington, as that upon which he was 
thrown, in a moment of desjiair, and where he took a lesson 
in perseverance from a spider ? 

You are right — a lesson which taught him how to win a 
crown ! 

Please tell me a little more about this island. 

In shape it resembles the human arm when bent into a 
right angle. The angle of Rathlin is named Church Bay, on 
the shore of which is the only fertile patch of any extent in 
this little territory- — that same not exceeding a hundred acres, 
though the island is six miles long, b}' an average breadth of 
one, and contains exactly, according to the Ordinance Survey, 



[38] 

three tliousaiid two Imndrcd and six acres. It has no hills 
and no coast, and seems to he one sandy plain, whose higliest 
point is not half a thousand feet. Yet it is regularly appor- 
tioned into twenty-one townlands. The ruins of Bruce's 
Castle, which stood at the convex or eihow of the island, 
facing Scotland, are in melancholy harmony with the general 
stillness a)id sterility. 



OIlArTER XXiri. OTIIKH ISLANDS. 

Is not Cajte Clear, so well known to Allnntic voyagers, an 
island? 

It is. The Ca])e is one of a group at the entrance of Roar- 
ing Water Bny. It is high, rocky, and, in some parts, almost 
inaccessible. It has a length of three miles, and some culti- 
vatable land in the northern extremity. This islet is regarded 
as the most southern jioint of Ireland. 

I have heard of Spike Island as a jienal settlement. Where 
is that? 

It is one of a group in Cork harbor. Here are confined 
offenders against the laws, Avhose sentences of transportation 
have been commuted, for hard labor and restraint in this ter- 
restrial purgatory. 

Which is the lai-gest of this group ? 

Great Island, an elevated and fertile spot, five miles long. 
by two to three in width, in which is situated the pretty little 
maratime town of Cove. 

Is not this port now^ named Queen's Town? 

It is, since the first visit of Queen Victoria to Cork. But 
this system of fastening upon places, for trivial reasons, inapi^ro- 
priate names, to the displaeement of a native and beautifully 
significant nomenclature, has more than once received 
rebuke from men of letters and taste, and should be dis- 
countenanced by public usage, before that usage has given a 
sanction which can't be, though it should, be reversed. 
"Cove," for instance, means harbor — a bighl}' appropriate 
designation for a port. 

Which of all the Irish islands is the most distant? 

Of those which are large enough to be inhabited, Tory, 



[ 39 ] 

oft" the coast of Donegal, is the most remote. This little col- 
ony is seven or eight miles from the mainland, which its few 
inhabitants seldom if ever visit. They live by lishing- and a 
little tillage, speak the Irish language exclusively, and, like 
the Belgian whose native parish is his country, the Torian's 
natal nation is Tory. The coast of this little territory is cliffy 
and hold, presenting to the mariner at a distance the apjjear- 
ance of battlements and minarets. 

Of the other islands, which are the principal? 
Clare, Inisturk, Inisbofin, Great Blasket, Bear, Dursey, 
Whidd}', and Garromna, on the west, with Lambay, Coi)e- 
land, and Ireland's Eye on the east. This last, however, is 
little better than a rock, as it presents a surfoce of only a 
few acres ; but Lambay is fertile and picturesque, and so is 
the largest of the Copeland grouiJ, which belongs to Down. 
Whiddy, in Bantry Bay, is still more fertile. Dursey is 
almost inaccessible ; and, for this reason, was one of the 
strongholds of the O'Driscolls. It is four miles long, but 
loss remarkable for soil than climate. Bear Island, also in 
Bantry Bay, is a still larger and more important piece of ter- 
ritory, and in no way interrupts the navigation of that, per- 
haps the tinest natural harbor of Eui-opo. 



CHAPTER XXIV. MINOR I'EUL'LIARITIES. 

Why, this island ap])ears to possess, upon a small scale, all 
the broad features of a continent. But continents have other 
characteristics, as table lands, j^rairies, saharas, burning moun- 
tains, waterfalls, caves and caverns, ge^^sers, and such strange 
developments ; as yet, I have seen none of these in the 
Emerald Isle. 

Nevertheless, they are all there, with the single exception of 
the active volcniio ; though Lough Salt Mountain, in Donegal, 
the Wicklow Sugar Loafs, and others, in Antrim, have all 
the appearance of extinct ones. 

But, recollect, you said in a late conversation that Ireland 
is comparatively destitute of trees : how, then, can it have 
the prairie? 

That remark applies to the general face of the country ; 



[40] 

but Clare, Wicklow, Down, Deny, and one or two other 
counties, still retain patches of the ancient forests which once 
covered those districts, and Avhich patches look the more 
venerable for their isolation. The wilderness near Clonmel, 
Walworth Desert, near the Foyle, in Derrj^, the forests of 
Castlewcllan and Tullj-more Park, in Down, the woody island 
labyrinths of Lougli Erne and Killarney, the remnants of 
Shillelagh, in Wicklow, and the "deep dark Avoods " of 
Cratloe, in Clare are mostly all natural. 

I have often heard the term, " Shillelagh ; " does it not 
mean a stick. 

Shillelagh is the name of a barony in Wicklow, whose oak 
forests once yielded the best timber in the British Isles, as 
Avould appear from the fact that Westminster Hall, London, 
is roofed with Shillelagh oak. The word is now a common 
noun, and applies to any kind of timber in the hand of an 
Irishman, for offence or defence, or walking. 

It takes me very much by surprise to hear that you have 
got any touch of Saharic solitude in the Green Isle to which 
Collins' Oriental Eclogues could apply: — 

" Onward resistless rolls the infuriate surge, 
Clouds follow clouds, and mountains mountains urge; 
AVheeling in air, the winged islands fall, 
And one, great, sandy ocean covers all." 

Yet, such is the fact; of course, upon a very diminutive 
scale, and alwaj'S in the vicinity of the sea. Some years ago 
a strong wind, rushing in from the Irish Sea u])on the shores 
of Down, disclosed masonry, and other remnants of human 
habitations, which had been long covered to a considerable 
de})th by sand, and which the living inhabitants of the neigh- 
borhood knew nothing about before! The little Sahara of 
Eossepenna, near wild Horn Head, in Donegal, has covered 
a village, and all but the tops of some ti'ees ; and, still more 
strange, the old town of Bannow, on the boisterous coast of 
Wexford, is now nowhere., owing to the same cause, though it 
was a principal port of that county in the fourteenth century ! 



[^1] 

CHAPTER XX A". — SCENKRY. 

From what has been said I infer, that an^' country so 
highly varied as this, must jiosscss the picturesque to no 
inconsiderable degree. 

True ; but the picturesque is only one order of scenery, 
that next above the tame, and must not be confounded with 
the wild, the beautiful, or the sublime. A territory muA" 
be too picturesque to be wild, and not sutticiently so to be 
beautiful ; while it may excel in each of these attributes, 
and still want tlie lowest degi-ec of the sublime. Then, 
again, a nation may range through all these orders of the 
interesting, and still be limited to one; cIuks of scenerv, ac- 
cording as the mountain or the plain, the lake or the river, 
the maratime or the inland, constitutes the secret of at- 
traction in each particular scene. 

What order and what class of scenery prevail most in 
the Green Isle ? 

Let a late number of the London Athencvum, a first-class 
literar}' journal, answer: — " Thei-e is Antrim for coast for 
cliff and caves — Mayo for Avild beaut}- — Killarney for en- 
chantment — Kerry, generally, for mountains — and Connemara 
for everything — wild as Tartary, beautiful as the unoccu- 
pied world, ere the gate of Paradise was barred, and Death 
placed to ward it." 

Is this the language of t\ict or of fancy ? 

Of both : the fact is neither accurate nor full, and the 
fancy impertinent. As an expression of feeling, however, 
it ap])ears to be true to the impression which Irish scenery 
geiierally makes u})on those who behold it for the first 
time. llilchie's Tours in Europe, Mrs. Hall's Sketches, 
Brewer's Beauties, Fisher's Irish Scenery, Wyld's Black- 
water and Bo^'ne, and almost every review, magazine, and 
newspaper of standing in the British Isles, have dwelt with 
manifest enthusiasm on the mountain, lake, river, glen, and coast 
scenery of Ireland ; while one English writer speaks of Irish 
sunsets as the most gorgeous he ever beheld. 

I question, nevertheless, that there is any object of con- 
templation in the country of Moore to which his grand a])0s- 
trophe to Mont Blanc could a]>ply without exaggeration? 



[ '2 ] 

That must be granted. Ireland, in common with nearly 
all the islands on the globe, and. perha])s, nine -tenths 
of the continental globe itself, lacks the hiijli sublime — an 
order of scenerj' which only those few territories can claim, 
whose mountain develoi^ments are not only on an Alpine 
scale but of the Alpine t^^pe, uniting the gigantic with the 
beaut ifuh 

Please to name those counties in Ireland most celebrated 
for sceneiy and tlie curious in nature? 

I merely express an individual opinion when I place them 
in the following order : — Antrim, Iverrj-, Wicklow, Coi'k, 
Clalway, Fermanagh, Sligo, Donegal, Mayo, Ti])perary, Cavan, 
and Derry. 

What peculiar claim has eacli of these upon tlie tourist 
and the lover of nature? 

The mysterious geological developments of Antrim amaze, 
puzzle, and delight. The contortions of mountain and lake, 
glen, cave, and cascade, constitute the claims of Kerry to 
the highest possible degree of that order of sceneiy termed, 
the beautiful, for which it is celebrated all the world over. 
The beautiful is also the prerogative of Wicklow, but its 
class or type is different from tliat of Kerry; streams tak- 
ing the place of lakes, S3'mmetry tliat of boldness in tlie moun- 
tains, and glens of charming associations being the prevailing- 
feature. The peculiarity of Cork in tliis respect is a rivahy 
between its nuu-atimc and inhuid scenes in chiiming and 
charming tiic epicure in natural beauty. Galway and Fer- 
managh have lake prospects which ]iress liai-d upon those 
of Kerry in point of fascination. A sublime wildni'ss of coast 
and mountain characterize Donegal and Ma^'o, also some 
very singular exhibitions of natural waywardness. 8ligo has 
magnificently bold headlands, beautiful lakes, and a highly 
varied surface; and the other counties excel in the pictu- 
resque, each in a different way and in a different degree. 



CHArTER XXVI. — GIANTS CAUSKWAV. 

In a former conversation, you jn-omised to describe tluit 
"miracle"; on the north coast of Antrim, it is now time to 
hold you to that engagement. 



[43] 

Be it su. Fancy ii iiiouiitrtiii sloj)c tliickly wooded. Cut 
off the branches and let the ti-unks stand upright in all their 
bareness. Conceive thoiii so close that you can barely 
see the light between, and so numerous as to be counted 
by the hundred-thousand or the naillion. Imagine next that 
every tree is jointed, that is, consisting of parts perched 
endways on each other, each part or joint fitting into the 
next with ball and socket, lilce the articulations of your fingers- 
By another exertion of creative fancy place them, so that every 
tree may have four, five, six or seven sides and be uniform in 
diameter from bottom to top. Now send a hurricane over the 
whole, so as to scatter a few into fragments and barelj' allow their 
bases or roots to appear above ground. And, lastl}', whirl 
your magic wand and turn all this wood into the hardest 
rock. You have now the profile of that geological miracle, 
the Giants' Causeway. 

How truly Avonderfid ! And can this be the work of Na- 
ture ? 

Certainly; the whole intei'ior of this county is strewn with 
the same kind of stone. It is of a dark color, close-grained 
and does not flake. Geologists call it " basalt," and class 
it with the volcanic rocks. 

And does it take the shape of pillars everywhere? 

No ; it is found, generally, in an amorj^hous state, over- 
spreading thousands of acres, like a coating of lava or melted 
lead. 

What ]-)roof is there that those pillars have not been chi- 
seled out of the shapeless basalt by the hand of man. 

In the last centur}-, a curious inquirer into nature subjected 
a quantity of the Antrim basalt to an enormous lieat, suffi- 
cient to melt it, he then suddenly exposed it to the cold 
atmosphere, and we are confidently assured that it assumed 
the angular shape common to all crystals. 

These pillars, then, are to be regarded as natural crystals? 

They are ; geologists entertaining no doubt whatever that 
they are the production of volcanic action, iinder circumstances 
analogous to those of the experiment just referred to. By a 
mysterious property in crystallization, the shapeless fluid in- 
variably precipitates an angular solid ; witness hailstones, 
icicles, stalactites, diamonds, as well as the artificial ervstals. 



[44] 

But this explains only one ])art of the mystor}- ; what say 
vou to the ball-and-socket articulation, the strani-'est effect of 



al 



'} 



This effect appears to be, what in lot^ic is termed an ''ac- 
cident." Expose newlj' made glass to the air before it is 
annealed, and it cracks into innumerable pieces. Some of 
the Antrim articulations are merely apparent, the severance 
not being" through and through, so that in those instances 
the joints are one undivided solid in the centre — another 
proof of their accidental origin, unless we assume an object- 
less and, therefore, a foolish work of supererogation, and 
that of the most herculean nature, on the part of one genera- 
tion to puzzle and deceive another. 

I understand, noAV, that the Causewa}' is a coast sloping 
from the level of the sea to a considerable height, and con- 
sisting not of huge shapeless rocks or mural precipices, but of 
hundreds of thousands of natural pillars — which, I fancy, must 
look from a distance at sea like a mountain of cathedral 
organs piled one above another — mysteriously jointed and 
regularly chiseled with flat sides and straight-line angles, 
forming a promontory beautiful as wonderful, the parallel 
of which, as I learned on a former occasion, has not yet been 
discovered in any part of the world. 

That is the main idea; but to have a precise conception of 
this truly sublime and deeply interesting object, you must see it 
with your own eyes and not with mine. From an elevation ol" 
nearly two hundred feet perpendicular, this grand colonnade 
diminishes as it nears the floor of the occan^ which covers no 
one knows liow much more of it ! 



CHAPTER XXVII. — KILLARNEV. 

I have, also, to remind j-ou, that in our thirteenth dialogue 
you promised to bring me to that famous resort which 1 have 
seen characterised in Clarke's Wonders as " the most extra- 
ordinary" of fresh -water lakes. What constitutes the extra- 
ordinary here ? 

A grouping or concentration of every order, and class, 
and degree of scenerj^, from the tame to the sublime, as if 
the Spirit of Poesy flew round the globe and deposited here 



[4o] 



the peculiarity of oveiy beautiful scene slie met on the earth. 

You don't mean to say, that Killarncj^ can have the beauty 
of Maggiore, the grandeur of Conio, the sublimity of Geneva, 
the dash and roar of Niagara, the sweetness of Windermere, 
the wildness of Loch Lomond, the blending of the Rhine — can 
it have the maratime feature and still be inland, the river 
featui'e and still be a lake? 

I have seen, (says the writer of Ritchie's EuroiJean Tourist,) 
lakes which are hirger and niountains which are higher than 
those of Kerr}' — I have seen places which cope with it in one 
respect, and a few which exceed it in another ; but, after 
all, there is a S(Uiicness about every one of them — that which 
is wild is wild, and that which is sublime is nothing else; 
but at Killarney I have seen the features of the most celebrated 
scenes : the distinguishing jjrcrogative of this place is variety. 

Any other testimony in the same direction ? 

A great deal, and that from such judges as Scott and Words- 
worth, whose own countries had such high claims on their 
predilections. The latter affirms this, " in point of scenery, 
the finest ])ortion of the British Isles." 

If possible, let me have a clear conception of that singular 
distribution of land and water, which constitutes the extraord- 
inary hei*e, and makes such impressions upon* the mind. 

The lakes of Killarney are three in number ; for, though 
connected, they are very distinct; the "Upper," or most 
southern, being two or three miles from the nearest point of 
the two others, which lie close to each other, but are divided 
by the promontory of Mucrus and two islands. Though, 
strictly speaking, the three constitute but one body of water, 
3'et they have not the same level, the southern sheet being 
more elevated than the two others. Y<ui are therefore pre 
pared to hear, that the Upper Lake discharges its surplus into 
the "Middle" and "Lower," through those two or three miles 
of a rapid channel, and « thus the river feature is beautifully 
developed in the "Long Eange." This, again, compels 3'ou to 
expect that something supplies the Upper with, and relieves 
the Lower of, all the water which dashes throtigh the Long 
Eange. Each of the three lakes is fed by streams which 
come tumbling and grumbling from the surrounding moun- 
tains, and hence the numerous waterfalls. When you hear 



[ JG ] 

that one of the inaiis' ])reroij;'atives of this favored spot is a 
wonderful echo, you need not be told that a single peal of 
thunder here is as a park of artillery, and that these mad falls 
keep the mountains at night constantly cursing. 

Wiiy not praying or sighing i)salms? — But say, what are 
the peculiar features of each lake? 

The Upper is between two and three miles in length, with a 
maximum breadth of r.bout three-quarters of a mile. It is 
almost entirely imbosomed in mountains, which are lined with 
the finest woods in Munster. It is gemmed with small islets, 
and fed by many streams, — that from the Black Valley being 
tlie most im])Ortant. The Middle, also called Tore Lake, from 
the romantic mountain of that name, which bounds it on the 
south, and sometimes Mucrus Lake, from the fair}- ])eninsula 
wliich forms it on the nortli, is a shade larger than the last. 
This is, also, richly rubed witii woods throughout its entire 
circuit of nine miles. It is into this spot tb.e Devil's Punch 
Bowl tumbles, from ^langerlon, forming the fine junij) of 
Tore waterfall. By meajis of lu-idges a road is carried around 
this lake, from ojie island to another, and thence to the main- 
land, ojdMiing u]) all its (-harms. The lower sheet is more ex- 
tensive than the two others and the Long liange put together. 
It is near six miles in length, and about half as wide. It re- 
ceives several tributaries, the princijjal of which is the Flesk, 
and from this sheet also proceeds the onlj" outlet of these 
lakes, named the Laune (or Loun.) Such are the ])rosy geo- 
graphical facts, omitting all allusion to the lights and shades 
and blendings of natural jtoesy, which constitute this land 
of enchantment a matei'ialized epic, wlujse idea is as true 
poetry as that of Lalla liookh or the Fairy (^ueen. 



(■UAI'TER XXXiri. WK'KLOW AiNJ> CORK. 

Please to name and point out the other principal attractions 
of Ireland, in the way of natural scenery. 

In AVicklow, — Glendalough, the Meeting of the "Waters, 
Powerscourt, the iJargle, the Glen-of-the-Downs, Pool-a- 
Phooka, the Sugarloaf Mountains, the Scalp, Delgany, and 
other places of higli beauty, but of less note ; in Cork, — 



[47] 

Glengariff and the. Cataract of Hungry Hill, the whole 
line of the Blackwater, Gougaue Barra and the Lee, Glen 
Caiim, the Coast of Carbevry, Blarney, the Caves neai" 
Cork, and the sweet labyrinths of glen and water which 
escort with smiles the nietro])olitan railway into the ca|»ital 
of the south. 

Enougli for the ])resent. T should like to kudw a little 
more about romantic Wicklow before going any further. 

As a whole, \Yicklow is, perhaps, the most pictures([ue of 
all the Irish counties. True, it has no scene to be compared 
with either of those just dwelt upon ; but it exceeds Anti'im 
and Kerry, nevertheles, in sus^tained beauty. 

Allow me, then, to accompany you in a running description 
of its principal scenes. 

The wild grandeur of gloom}^ Glendalough, like a deep 
gigantic amphitheatre scooped out of a mountain, the grave 
of so man}^ lif'^y I'nins — the charming vale of Avoca, where 
the "bright waters meet," (namely, the purling Avon and the 
fairy Avoca.) sure 

" Tlicre's iint, in lliis "wido Wdi-M a valley so sweet," 

the magnificent tumble of Powei'scourt Cataract and the little 
less inferior jump of Pool-a-Phooka, whose repulsive drear- 
iness and little whirlpool are referred to in its a]>pro})riate 
though infernal appellation — that splendid Clen, and more 
splendid Dargle, whose sides arc mountains and tops are 
table-lands, where children play and look down on human 
•'crows" below — those natural Pyramids, so much more 
picturesque than the artificial ones, to the e^'c of the mind as 
Avell as to that of the body, these crushing their makers 
into the earth, while those point up to their Architect in 
heaven — then, the deep contrast of the naked, rocky, terrible 
Scalp, where suspended quarries guard the mountain -gap, 
which you tremble to pass, lest they come, liUe the sword of 
Damocles, upon your own scalp. These are but a few of 
the many objects of interest in this delightful county. 

Now, let us take a trip to Cork. 

The largest of all the Irish shires is one big natural picture 
fron\ Limerick to the sea. The great extent of this county, 
approaching near two millions of acres, or twent3'-ninc 



[48] 

hundrpd square miles, whieli is more than three times the 
size of Wicklow, is one cause of its not heine; so full}' explored 
bj' tourists as the latter, Avhose vicinity to the metropolis is 
another circumstance in its favor. 

What is Glengarilf remarkable for? 

This is a little lagoon at the extremity of Bantry Bay, of 
which it is an oft'shoot. It is completely land-locked, and 
has all the appearance of a lake, notwithstanding that the 
tide enters it, and of course its water is salt. The scenery all 
around this magnificent bay is very fine, being a combination 
of the wild and the picturesque, with a touch of the sublime. 
Independently of these associations, this gem of the ocean, 
(ilengariff, is a wonder of loveliness. It occupies the centei* 
of a romantic glen, (whence its name.) encompassed by lofty 
mountains, one of which vomits down the highest waterfall 
in the British Isles. Thus, in winter, when the bay is boiling, 
and the cataract roaring, and the hills flinging out " their 
red banners of lightning," this babe of the Atlantic sleeps and 
smiles, the center-piece of the uproar! This single scene is 
not surpassed, if, indeed, it be equalled, by anj' other of its 
class in Ireland or Europe. 

When you say the waterfall of Glengarift" is higher than 
any other in the three kingdoms, are you aware of the exact 
height of the celebrated Scotch cataracts on the Fyers and 
the Clyde? 

Neither of these is a wingle fall, like that of Adragol. The 
double fall of the Clj'de is under two hundred feet; and the 
two grand jumps of the Fyers. as it plunges into Lough Ness, 
measure together two hundred and seventy-seven : but the 
single tumble of Adragol is more than double this in depth, 
coming, as it does, from a height of near eight hundi-ed feet! 

You have, then, in Ireland, the largest lake, the largest river 
and the highest waterfall in the United Kingdom? 

Such appears to be the fact; and if there be, as I suspect is 
the case, no geyser or natural jet d'eau in Britain, jerking a 
pillar of water to a height of seventy* feet in the open air, with 
a roar like thunder, then this is a fourth pre-eminence to which 
the waters of Ireland can lay claim, as compared with those of 
the sister island. 



[49] 



CHAPTER XXIX. — CAVES AND CAVERNS. 

Have you any subterranean Avonders in Ireland like our 
Mammoth Cave in Kentucky? 

Several, and those of every size and shape; while a few are 
on scales so extensive, that they are not yet wholly exj)lored, 
and so wonderful as to be almost indescribable. 

Please to name and point out the princijial ? 

The Irish caves may be classed into those which are found 
on the coast, and which are produced by the action of the 
ocean, and those which exist inland and are attributable to 
the porosity of limestone acted upon by obvious natural 
agencies. 

As the latter appear to be prior in point of time, take 
them first. 

Natural caves have been discovered in several parts of 
the county of Cork ; they have been found, too, in Kilkenny, 
Kerry, Westmeath, Tyrone, Limerick, Down, Antrim, and, 
recently, on a gigantic and magnificent scale, in Tipperary. 
They are met with, also, in other counties ; but these latter 
can not be compared with the great subterranean vaults of 
Cloyne, the Ovens., Dunmore, Ballybunion, and Mitchelstown. 

Where are those places just named ? 

The city of Cork is surrounded by several very strange 
and even wonderful freaks of nature in this line. East of 
it, near Cloyne, are ones of startling strangeness and beauty, 
owing to the mysteriously artistic shapes assumed by their 
millions of stalactitic pendants and crystal incrustations, 
which so strikingly resemble ecclesiastical furniture. West 
of it, near the banks of the Bride, are "the Ovens," a sub- 
terranean labyrinth of magnitude and gloomy grandeur. 
Unlike the generality of limestone caverns, the Ovens display 
an evenness of side and ceiling which at first reminds one 
of the polished sides of a trowel. On the Blackwater and 
at Blarney are other natural caverns, all in the one county. 

Where is Dunmore? 

A few miles north of the city of Kilkenny. Here is a 
great cavern, known for ages, but not wholly explored j-et. 
In it you proceed, at a depth of sixty feet from daylight, 
7 



[50] 

for a, quarter of a, mile in one vast chamber, Avli'ich is ter- 
minated by a river, beyond wliich wlio will venture? 

Where is Ballybunion? 

The "far-famed Caves of Ballj'bunion " are one of the 
many attractions of Kerry. They constitute one of the most 
interesting features of the great cote de fer of the West, and 
are not far from the mouth of the Shannon. The caves of 
Dunloe and Gurtnagloran are, also, in the same favored 
county, situated, respectiveh", near the rival scenes of Kil- 
larney and Caragh. "Cat's Hole," in Westmeath, and "Solo- 
mon's Porch," in Tyrone, are two other great caverns, which, 
with the former, deserve a more lengthened notice than can 
be afforded here. 

Ee kind enough to lay your finger on that point of the 
map representing Mitchelstown? 

There it is, in the north-Avest of Cork; but the great caves 
whose agnomen this term is, belong to Tippei^ary. Though 
Ireland has an accepted history of two thousand years, these 
wonderful caves are a later discover}^ than those of Ken- 
tucky, whoso first historian is yet living! — a pertinent illus- 
tration of the industrial history of Ireland since 1172. 

"Why not go further back than this significant date ? 

Because caves of another class, found recently in Kerry 
and Antrim, forbid it. In 1721 a coal mine was discovered 
at Ballycastle, on the north-east coast. In fifty j^ears after, 
when the shafts were sunk deep and the mine extended 
under tlie bed of the sea, wliat was the surprise of the 
modern "discoverers" to find — an excavation "cut and dry," 
with pillars of coal supporting the ro/of, with the remains of 
tools, baskets, and all the evidences of a "cunning" industry, 
unknown to Bi-itish history! And a similar discovery was 
made in Kerry, only a few years ago, while exploring a mo- 
tallic mine. 

Very strange indeed. 



CHAPTER XXX. — MITCHELSTOWN CAVES. 

If possible, let me have a clear conception of the new 
caves, respecting which you have excited my curiosity. 



[51] 

Discovered in May, 1833, by the accident of a limestone 
quarry, down through which, as if by magic, disappeared the 
crowbar out of the miner's hands, the opening, or adit, into 
this grand subterranean palace was thus made known. Going 
into it, you walk, in a stooped gait, down a gentle slope for 
about eleven yards. Here is a perpendicular precipice, 
fifteen feet deep, down which you descend by means of a 
ladder. Arrived at the bottom, a long passage, like a hall, 
carries j^ou down its slope for about nine yards more, and then 
Byron's "perpendicular reptile" is at right angles, or nearly 
so, with the floor. Up to this, your course has been south- 
ward, with a slight inclination to the east ; but soon you enter 
a more spacious hall, which turns nearly due east and carries 
you, in a perfect straight line, for about two hundred and forty 
feet more. The average height of this great avenue is twenty- 
seven feet, or about three times that of the former. 

You have not said whether tliere be any stalagmites from 
the floor, or stalactites from the ceiling? 

Because such do not exist here ; these ornaments are for 
other places, which you will soon enter. Massive blocks of 
limestone are the only fixtures in either of those passages. 
You now enter one of the great caves. Its height is thirty- 
five feet from floor to sparry ceiling, and its length about one 
hundred and seventy. It is very regular in outline, one-half 
being a perfect rotundo, and the other a rectangle; the di- 
ameter of the former is ninety -five feet, and the breadth of 
the latter about half that. 

Is this, then, the largest of these subterranean vaults ? 

It is not; two others are much more extensive, and half a 
dozen more interesting, from which branch off, in all di- 
rections, corridors, galleries and passages yet unexplored! 

Is any order observable in these passages ? 

Yes, a surprising parallelism governs the whole; like lanes 
or allej^s in American towns, those passages which are not 
parallel are at right angles, which makes them parallel to 
others. 

Let us leave them, and return to the great cave just de- 
scribed. 

Passing through the circular compartment of this great ante- 
chamber, twenty yards or so bring you into a gorgeous saloon, 



[52] 

nearly two hundred feet long, and not unlike the former in 
shape, but wider. Here are stalagmites and stalactites of sur- 
prising shapes and proportions ; the former, like great Roman 
pillars, as if supporting the horizontal roof, and the others, 
like millions of wax tapers from the size of an icicle to that of 
a huge chandelier, whose weight brings it within a few inches 
of the floor, all waiting for a light to multiply it by reflection, 
according to their respective hues and capacities, to the display 
of a glorious scene. This magnificent " accident" is known as 
the " Four Courts." 

Is this, then, the principal cave? 

Perhaps it is, if we regard its extent and beauty together, 
though the "Garret Cave" exceeds it in the one respect, and 
falls little short of it in the other ; while the "Kingston Gal- 
lery" is regarded by a scientific eye as "the most remarkable 
compartment of the entire excavation." 
In what respect ? 

Singularity ; it may be regarded as a cave within a cave, 
which terminate in a third cave, all constituting one cave of 
different elevations, from which branch off corridors into prob- 
ably anotlier labyrinth of caves yet unexplored ! The " Gal- 
lery" is only seven feet wide, while it is one hundred and sev- 
enty-five long, perfectly straight, witli Gothic arching, walls 
veneered with variegated spar, aud partitions wainscoted with 
ciystal drapery ! 

How long is the Garret Cave? 

The longest of all — two hundred and fifty-five feet; 
getting wider and wider as you enter, from fifteen to fifty- 
five feet. 

Have you arrived at these figures yourself? 
I have not ; they are those of Dr. Apjohn, from a ver}' exact 
paper of his, published in the Dublin Geological Journal, imme- 
diately after the discovery of these great curiosities. 

You spoke of half a dozen caverns just now, but you have 
described onlj^ four. 

The "Bed-Chamber Cave" is so called from an angle of it, 
which strikingly reminds you of a bed with curtains. This 
fantastic, or rather artistic freak of nature is regarded as one 
of the greatest curiosities of its class. One magnificent sheet 
of calcareous spar, clear as glass, hangs suspended from the 



[53] 

ceiling, in ample and graceful folds, dyed and fringed as if to 
mock that great effort of ingenuity, the spinning-jenny. 

What are the dimensions of this cavern ? 

Ninety b}'' forty-five, and is, therefore, the smallest of those 
described, but one of the most curious. It has some splendid 
stalagmites, and constitutes the link which connects the cavern 
first described with the last two. The " Long Cave" is the 
most southern of all, and is the centre from which branch off a 
great number of unexplored passages. Here, also, are some 
curious incrustations. 

I think now I have a pretty fair conception of this great 
natural curiosity. 

I doubt it ; however, let me add, there are here some beau- 
tiful pools and streams, illuminated by their crystal bottoms, 
and besides the "bed chamber," an "organ," a "table," a 
"drum," a "pyramid," and other wonderful resemblances of 
well-known works of art. Mrs. Hall calls the whole thing " a 
natural marvel, the most singular in Great Britain, perhaps 
unsurpassed in the world ; for such it is pronounced to be by 
those who have examined the leading marvels of the four 
quarters of the globe." 

CHAPTER XXXI. — CURIOSITIES OF THE COAST. 

Have you any cavern of the great coast, comparable to those 
you have just described, but not explained ? 

The curiosities of this class, which have been produced by 
the action of the billows, are comparatively circumscribed ; 
while the former seem endless, as if they are merely the ante- 
chambers of dormitories in which the hills of the earth once 
slept, ere the exterminating earthquake came of age. Fright- 
ful blocks of rock, weighing tons upon tons, found in every 
conceivable position, some strewed on the floor, some threat- 
ening from the walls, and others hanging by corners from the 
ceiling, as if they had been torn asunder by some convulsion 
of nature, are an invariable feature of the inland caverns of 
the globe. And as to those magnificent crystallizations, their 
explanation is perfectly illustrated by icicles ; the principal 
material difference being, that these are water, while those are 
carbonate of lime. 



[54] 

Is it not also strange, that water could scooj) caverns in 
hard rock? ■ '^ 

If " constant dripping wears stones," the constant action 
of tides twice a day since God separated the dry land from 
the waters, with the battering-ram action of brumal storms, is 
a cause equal to any effect attributed to it. The Irish coast is 
a very legible chronicle of what has been done in this way in 
one locality since the year One. Sea-worn tunnels, gateways, 
avenues, chambers, large enough to float boats and pleasure 
parties, is one of the many romantic features of this coast, on 
every side. In the Mourne coast of Down is a natural cavern 
in a rock o? flint ; Portcoom Cave and Dunkerry Cavern, near 
the Griaut's Causeway, are in marble basalt, and MacSwine's 
Gun, near Horn Head, in green granite I 

AVhat a strange name for a cavern ! 

The MacSwines (or MacSweenys) were an ancient sept who 
owned the north-west district of Donegal, in which the Gun 
thunders. It is so called from a singular and sublime effect 
produced by it in conjunction with the billows. The latter, 
which sweep with awful violence at this exposed corner, 
tumble into the cavern, and bursting through an ajDerture in 
the top which they have also augui'ed, shoot a pillar of salt 
water into the air to a height varying from forty to seventy 
feet, by a thicknsss of six, making the welkin ring like artil- 
lery, for ten miles all around ! 

This, I presume, is that curiosity alluded to in the last an- 
swer of our twenty-eighth dialogue ? 

It is ; but this is not the only natiiral jet d'eau in Ireland. 
The Puffing Hole, near Miltown, in Clare, is such another; it 
is heard at a considerable distance, grumbling like a latent 
volcano, even when there is no visible action from it. And a 
third is to be met with at Killough, on the coast of Down. 
Thus the romance of Icelandic geysers, without their danger, 
is beautifully provided for the Irish landscape. 

Which is the largest of the coast caverns ? 

Perhaps that near Cahirciveen. Here about are several cu- 
rious caverns in "the iron rocks" of Kerry; but one, which is 
so low at the entrance as barely to admit you at high water, if 
you sail into it standing up, will accommodate ail your rigging 
and canvas inside. Here is an astonishing echo. 



[55] 

I recollect you identified the rocks of Kerry as clayslate, at 
a former sitting. 

Cote de fer ["coast of iron"] is a complimentary appellation 
commonly applied to bold coasts. But the term is literally 
appropriate to many bold headlands in this and other counties. 
In the barony of Iraghticonnor, near Dune Castle, on the 
Keriy coast, are iron pyrites which are liable to spontaneous 
combustion, if indeed there be literally such an eifect in na- 
ture. Towards the close of the last century this rock took fire 
and attracted much notice ; soiiie taking the novel exhibition 
for the monition of an approaching volcano ! But Ireland, 
with all its striking evidences of by -gone volcanic convulsion, 
is one of the safest countries on the globe in this respect, and 
has been within authentic history. 

Is Irish histor}^ entirelj^ silent on thife point? 

By no moans. In Ma}', 1778, an unmistakable volcanic 
crash surprised that suspicious region, the north coast of An- 
trim ! Near Ballycastle, at Knocklayde, a sudden and violent 
eruption of smoke, fire and ashes burst forth at the date men- 
tioned, which ascended to the height of a steeple, strewing 
the ground around the hill, for a quarter of a mile, with 
stones and cinders. "In forty-six minutes after the first shock, 
a stream of lava was poured out and rushed in a sheet of 
liquid fire, about sixty j'ards in breadth, down the fields, until 
it entered tha adjoining village of Ballyowen, where it involved 
the houses and their unfortunate inhabitants in one conflag- 
rate ruin, none having escaped but one man, his wife and two 
children ! !" 

How long did this continue? 

AVe are told for thirty-nine hours, and then totally ceased ! 



CHAPTER XXXII. — OTHER MARATIME SCENES. 

How I should like to take the tour of this romantic coast! 

If ever you do, be sure to visit the Amphitheatre and the 
Clifts of Mohai', in Clare — Connemara and the Twelve Pins, in 
Gralway — Clew Bay, Croagh Patrick and Achill, in Mayo — 
Knocknaree, in Sligo — Slieve League, Horn Head and Lough 
Swilly, in Donegal — Glenarm, Glenariff", in shox*t, the whole 



[56] 

coast of Antrim; not forgettinc;, for your life, Doon Point, in 
Eathlin — Armer's Hole, Loug-hstrangfbrd and Eostrevor, in 
j)own — Dublin Bay, the Hill of Howth and Killiney — Cam- 
sore Point, in Wexford — the outer and inner Harbor of Cork ; 
in a word, the whole circuit of cliff and sti-and, bay and har- 
bor, island and islet, from this to the Shannon mouth. 

What is the " Amphitheatre, " which causes it to be so 
named ? 

It is a circular or horse-shoe indentation in the coast, not far 
from the Puffing Plole, where tiSrs of shelving rocks, like seats 
at a theatre, or the Giants' Stairs near Cove, rise over each 
other with very noticeable regularity. In itself this object is 
very interesting, but when the wind is high and the sea rough, 
the waves come jumping from ledge to ledge, to descend the 
next moment in so many charming cascades — the " horse- 
shoe" Niagara in miniature. 

What is Armor's Hole, and why so named ? 
It is a natm-al arch through a ledge of rock, like a huge 
gateway, through which the sui^ges play "thread the needle." 
It is a place fit for dark deeds, such as that which has given it 
the present name ; for here, a hundred and fifty-seven years 
ago, a man of this name was murdered by his own son. 
What are the Twelve Pins ? 

Twelve isolated mountains lying pretty regularly, like a row 
of pins in a cushion. Binabola, the highest, has* an elevation 
of 2396 feet. The district south of these, between Lough Cor- 
rib and the ocean, is the wildly beautiful territory of Conne- 
mara — the "countrj' of MacNamara." 

I understood you to say, when speaking of the islands, that 
Eathlin is not remarkable for scenery ? 

A serious omission was then made, in foi-getting one corner 
of this bleak and otherwise unimportant spot. A phenomenon 
very similar to that of the Giants' Causeway, and FingaU's 
Cave in Staffa, is to be witnessed at Doon Point, in Eathlin. 
There the Basaltic pillars have this peculiarity — they are not 
only perpendicular, but, also, horizontal and sloping, forming 
graceful curves as they lie into the slope of the " Point." This 
variety of position attaches an interest to this scene which is 
all its own. Basaltic pillars ax'e found also at Magelligan 
Point, in Derry, another part of the same igneous region. 



[57] 

What are the other phices remarkable for ? 
For scenery, in the landscape acceptation of the term. 
Speaking of the pi'ospoct from the conical summit of Croagh 
Patrick, which overlooks the island-studded Clew Bay, an 
American lady, Mrs. Nicholson, writes : " The iirst sight was 
so picturesque and dazzling, I supposed my eyes Avere deceiv- 
ing me, that the almost supernatural exertion [of climbing that 
vertical hill, 2528 feet over the Bay] had dimmed the true vi- 
sion and false images were flitting before me." Of Sligo Buy 
she says : " Nothing but the Blackwater could equal it, and 
that could not boast such picturesque mountains. Here are 
mountains of rock, standing out in circular shape with the 
appearance of pillars, as if hewn by an architect ; others like a 
bax, with a cover shut over it, and the edges of this cover 
plaited. This singular appearance of rock and mountain con- 
tinued for sevei-al miles." What an English writer says of a 
sunset in Kerry, she endorses when speaking of Conncmara — 
"such a sun-setting and such a twilight by sea or by land I 
never beheld." 

What does she say of Dublin Bay and Cork Harbor ? 

She repeats the Avords of another : "I have travelled much, 
but have never found anything surpassing the Bay of Dublin 
and the Cove of Cork." Yet, unsurpassed as these places are 
in point of beauty, it is a question to be decided : that if di- 
vested of all that art has done to heighten tlie effect of nature 
there, would the Cove of Cork or the Bay of Dublin then sur- 
pass charming Rostrevor, wild Lough Swilly, lovely Glenarm, 
romantic Crook Haven, or any one of a dozen other maratime 
prospects around the coast? 

CHAPTER XXXIII. — OTHER INLAND SCENES. 

As I hope not to die till I have made the tour of this 
region of scenery, let me trouble you, for the last time, to point 
me out its other objects of interest in this line ? 

Eemember, we are not yet done with Nature, and can not, 
therefore, refer at present to a class of scenery in which the 
country abounds, and in which a Lhuyd would live fasting. 
Scott spent but one day at Killarney, while he passed two 
at Cashel ! 



[58] 

Well, then, of natural objects what remains ? 
Many magnificent mountain passes, gloomy glens, pretty 
rivers and pretty lakes. The great pass of Barnesraore, 
which is the subject of more than one English romance, is in 
Donegal ; the celebrated G-ap of Donloe is sufficientlj^ known, 
when named, as the gloomy antithesis of all that is sunny at 
Killarney ; the wild, rocky Pass of Cooleagh, near Bantry, 
another Scalp, two miles long ; the bloody Pass of the Plumes, 
in Queen's County, so called because of a great slaughter of 
English here, by 0'31oore, when the place was strewn with their 
hats and cockades; the superb Glen of Agherlow, in Ti^jperary, 
ever smiling, though hemmed in for eight miles by two rugged 
mountains — the Galtees and Slieve-na-muck — the former rising 
almost vertically to the height of three thousand feet. This 
single scene of naked mountain and natural wood and purling 
streams and tasteful seats, is a compensation for a day's 
journey. 

What kind of scenery is that of the Shannon ? 

Magnificent ; few rivers have such a rise, and such a fall, 
and such intermediate associations. In this respect it is ap- 
proached, in Ireland, by only the Lee. 

You left me under the impression that the Blackwater is the 
most beautiful river in the island, when you styled it the 
"Irish Rhine." Is there no contradiction here? 

I am now speaking of only the rise and fall of rivers, and 
the rise and fall of the Shannon and of the Lee are truly 
fine, admitting few parallels. The Blackwater's jire-eminence 
consists in a happy union of nature and art along its course^ 
more particular!}^ during its passage through the county of 
Waterford. Here baronial palaces, gray ruins and well- 
wooded domains x'elieve the natural undulations of the varied 
landscape with an effect which has thrilled every beholder 
endowed with a j)article of natural or acquired refinement. 

What does Mrs. Nicholson say of this ? 

" When passing through the Yale of Ovoca I thought that 
JSTature could do no more than she had there done; but, on 
the banks of the Blackwater she showed me that a bolder 
stroke of her pencil had been reserved for this outline. Let 
the traveller gaze upon the picture and say, if he can, what 
is wanting." 



[59] 

But let us return to the Shannon. 

Immediately above Limerick, the Eapids, the Woods of 
Cratloe, the mountains of Arra and Clare, and the broad bosom 
of Lough Derg, all converging at the one spot, the town 
of Killaloe, is a scene which has been matched by Mrs. Hall, 
and others, against any in Kerrj'. Further up, the scenery is 
less magnificent, but still very fine till we come to Lough 
Allen, where it takes its highest jump, if we except the one 
prospect just referred to. Larger than iinj lake in Kerry, and 
imbosomed in mountains, Lough Allen wants little of being 
a paragon. 

What other rivers of L'cland have claims on the tourist? 

In an eminent degree, the Roe, the Foyle, with more than 
one of its arms, the Slancy, and the Anna Liffey. But to 
name every stream in Ireland interwoven with beautiful 
landscapes, would be almost the full repetition of a catalogue 
already given in the seventeenth and succeeding chapiters. 
It may be remarked, however, that owing to the peculiar 
geological development of Antrim, the number of streams 
pelted over precipices in that county dashes a spray of anima- 
tion and romance over so large a portion of it as to constitute 
quite a peculiarity. Nor must we omit Spenser's celebrated 
MuUagh, near which he wrote and sang and slandered. 

Where is the Mullagh ? 

The name is thought to be one of his own imposing, and, 
consequently, there is some difference of opinion as to the 
identical stream so often praised in his writings. Some think 
it to be the Avondhuv, or Blackwater, near which his Castle 
of Kilcolman, adjacent to Buttevant, was situated; while 
others contend it is the Aubeg, a winding stream which is 
still nearer to the castle, and which falls into the other river 
between Mallow and Fcrmoy. 



CHAPTER XXXIV. — PRODUCTIVE CAPACITY. 

The paramount topic of a nation's industrial resources, ma}' 
be said to be the back and front of all geography. I wish 
now to look at Ireland from this point of view. 

Without asking a question, you can go far to inform yourself 



[CO] 

by a glance at the map. At a glance you see the latitude of 
Ireland; and its first parallel, 51° 19\ whispers — no grapes, 
no tea or coffee or cocoa, no lemons, no oranges, no spices, no 
cotton, no sugar-cane, no tomatos or melons, no mulberry and 
no silk-worm. — but, also, no tiger, or rattlesnake, or croco- 
dile, or mosquito, or prickly itch, or sun -stroke. 

What is the other parallel ? 

55° 23^; and, therefore, no whalebone, or sealskin, or walrus- 
ivory, or bristles, or white-bear hair — but, also, no nights 
three months long, no rocks for blankets, no "blue-cold nose 
and wrinkled brow," no " stunted juniper," and no death by 
frost-bite. 

But do not these figures give me affirmative, as well as 
negative ideas of production ? 

Most certainly; they spell "temperate zone," "gnarled 
oak," "region of wheat," and "hardy vegetation," with all 
their concomitants. 

But there is nothing specially Hibernian in all these im- 
plications, which belong to Great Britain and many other 
countries ? 

Very true ; but in education, the general should precede 
the particular ; before laying the corner-stone we must clear 
away the rubbish and chalk out the foundations. This, so 
to speak, is now done, and done b}^ the map. Let us see, next, 
what else it can tell us in the way of production. We have 
a little over five degrees for the geographical length of the 
nation, and a little beyond four for the geographical breadth 
between the Islets of Down and the Blaskets, and beyond 
these limits Ireland can not claim credit for one inch of earth, 
air or water. Here, now, is our first special idea respecting 
the maximum capacity of this country. Looking again at the 
map, you see, at a glance, the proportion of this superficies 
occupied by arms of the sea ; and this brings us to the prac- 
tical dimensions of the island. These dimensions are further 
reduced when we see and allow for mountain wastes, which the 
map also shows. The map also points out other deductions, 
and thus we get at the bona fide productive area of the country, 
respecting whose mineral and vegetable resources that docu- 
ment is silent ; and now we must go elsewhere. 

You seem to is-nore the animal resources of countries ? 



[CI] 

The vegetable world is always the measure of the animal. 
Iceland has little or no vegetation — the precise measure of its 
" handful " of people, who would fit in Limerick or Waterford, 
though that island is as large as Ireland. The rock which 
can't grow a loaf of bread, or a head of cabbage, how can it 
grow the mouth to eat it? 

Upon this principle, the area and population of a territory 
given, is the problem of its vegetable productiveness solved ? 

In a great measure. We know little of China, beyond the 
fact that it swarms with human beings ; we require no more 
to inform us that here is a region bursting with fertility. 
Belgium, in like manner, having, in proportion to its extent, 
the largest population in Europe, must needs be second to 
no European country in fertility. 

Let us apply this yard-measure to the soil of Ireland. 

If we do, we must include a population which is not within 
the limits of the island. For the exports of that country being 
chiefly agricultural, go to support another population besides 
its own. Immediately before the famine in 1846, the resident 
population of Ireland, exclusive of all emigration, exceeded 
eight millions. If we set down the agricultural exports as rep- 
resenting eight millions more, [for certainly the home-con- 
sumption of Irish provisions is less than the foreign] and then 
take into account the three millions of waste, but redeemable 
lands, and what might be done with a better system of tillage, 
and encouraging land-laws, we shall not be surprised at the 
deductions of secial economists who affirm, that Ireland is ca- 
pable of supporting, in comfort, "from twenty to thirty millions 
of people.'" 

CHAPTER XXXV. — AGRICULTURAL RESOURCES. 

By taking the civil divisions of the country separately, and 
seeing their respective extents, as regards arable and waste 
lands, you will take the shortest method of giving me clear 
ideas, at the outset, of the industrial resources of Ireland. 

Yes, and a few carefully digested tables of figures, taken 
from reliable sources, such as the exact surveys instituted from 
time to time by government, have the additional advantage of 
servino; for future reference. 



[62] 

"Well, then, liow much arable and waste land in each of the 
four jirovinces ? 
As follows : — 

ARABLE. WASTE. 

Lvinster, .... 3,961 ,188 Acres. Comiaufrht, . . , 1,906,002 Acres. 

Munster, .... :i.s74,613 " Munster, .... 1,893,477 " 

Ulster 3.4(I7,.539 " Ulster, 1,764,370 " 

Coiinaught, , . . 2,!320,9(iO " Leiuster, 731,830 " 

Total, , . . 13,464,300 6,295,6S5 

Are these six millions of acres wholly unproductive? 

Far from it. They consist chiefly of mountain and bog, of 
which only the naked rock and the deep bog hole are wholly 
useless. They include the granite hills of Dalkey and Wick- 
low, out of which have been reared those magnificent struc- 
tures, the public buildings of the metropolis. They inchide the 
millstone grit of Brahlieve and other mountains, which is 
largely exported to England. They include the extensive 
copper and lead mines of Knockraahon, in Waterford, and the 
metalliferous hills of Lough Allen, pregnant with iron and cop- 
per. They include Slievebeagh in Fermanagh, where geologic 
theory and theorists insist there must be a coal mine, though 
yet undiscovered. They coraj^rehend the crystals on the top 
of Knocknaree and the Diamond Mountain, and the rich 
iron-stone of Cuilcagh, from whose summit of two thousand 
feet British factories have got some of their best millstones. 
Heath for besoms and brooms, brushwood for fuel, and exten- 
sive vintages of wild " hurts" are yielded by the mountain pro- 
portion of those six millions of acres. Several miles of Slieve- 
namuck and other mountains in Tipperary supply Liverj)ool 
wine merchants with that excellent berry whose juice is re- 
turned to the Irish gentry for Burgundy and port ! And not 
only to these, who have been always epicures and judges in 
this respect, but also to the middle classes of Britain. 

Do not those hills in like manner grow forests, and yield turf? 

The latter in abundance, and the former abundantly in 
times gone by, while some of them make good sheep-walks, 
and admit of cultivation to an almost incredible height; the 
green oasis up a thousand feet, attracting the eye at a dist- 
ance of several miles. As a remarkable instance of this, be- 
hold- the settlement of Mount Mellary, up in the mountains of 
Waterford ! 



[03] 

Instead, then, of denominating as "waste" those six millions 
of acres, I should prefer to know the full area of each county, 
marking its per-centage of arable land. 

The following data are taken from the Poor-rate Valuation, 
which is the standard by which the country is taxed for the re- 
lief of the destitute. The Ordinance Survey gives other fig- 
ures, which are somewhat less. It will be noticed that I have 
arranged the table so as to show the comparative size of each 
county at a look, the largest being first and the smallest last : 



FULL AKEA OP EACH COUNTY. 



rdirsTlES. ACRES. COUNTIES. AORES. 

Cork ...l,84(;,:«3i Roscommon 607,691 

Galw;iY .. l,.W(i,3fi4!!Vre;Uh 579,899 

Mayo.". l,.3'v2,S82 We-xford 576,.'i88 

TJonogal 1,193,443 iPerry 618,.59.'; 

Kerry l,18U,l'.^r, Kilkenny .509,732 

Tipp'y l,0iil,731 IWicklow 600,178 

Clure 827,994 I King's County 493,985 

Tvrono 80fi,«40 Cavan 477,3H0'Dublln 220,414 

Antrim 745,187 Sligo 451,753 Carlow 221,342 

Limerick 080,842 jWaterfonl 461, 553 Louth 201,434 

Down 612,492 rermanajrh 457,195i 



COUNTIES. ACREP. 

West Meath 453,408 

Queen's County 424,854 

Kildare 418,436 

Loitrim ;. .392,303 

Armagh 328.170 

MonnKhan 319,7.57 

LonKford 209,409 



I will now thank you for a similar table, showing hoAV much 
of each county is fit for the plough, placing that first which ia 
most so, and that last which is least. 

That county which is most so, is Meath, and that which is 
least so, Donegal; more than ninety-four per cent, of the for- 
mer being arable, and barely thirty-three of the latter. 



COUNTY PER CENTAGE OF AKABLE LAND. 



Jleath 94.3-:' 

Kilkenny 92.2 

Monai^ban 89.4 

Louth 88.8 

Wexford 88.5 

Dublin 80.0 

Kildare 85.2 

Down 84 

Carlow 83.1 

Armagh 80.8 

Queen's County 80.5 



W. Meath 80.5 

Tipperary 79.4 

Cavan 78.0 

Limerick 77.8 

Roscommon 72.4 

Longford 71.2 

Cork 70.9 

Waterford 70.5 

King's County P8.2 

Antrim 67 5 

Leitritn 03. .5 



Fermanagh 03.2 

Sligo 02.9 

Derry 01.3 

Wicklow 50.1 

Tyr.mo .55.9 

Ciare 54.9 

Gahvay 47,4 

Mayo ...30.4 

Kerry 35.0 

Donegal 32.9 



* This mode of expressing quantities is certainly familiar to many sub- 
Bcribers to this publication, but, as certainly, it is not to many others, who •will 
not be offended at the utmost explicitness, but will rather expect it and take it 
as a favor. Let us explain, then, that 94.3 is the same exprtssion as 94 .3-10 
meaning, in the present case, that if the county of Meath were apportioned 
into one htmdred equal parts, ninety-four of those parts, and a little bit, would 
be fit for tillage. The little bit is precisely three-tenths of another part, which 
(if we must further explain) means the subdivisions of this other part into 
tenths, and three of them taken. 



[04] 

I see by this that there are four counties in Ireland, (and 
hy the preceding table that they are four of the largest,) the 
one-half of which, singly or collectively, can not be tilled? 

Very true ; but it must be remembered that the spirit of 
progress has been tampering with those data since they were 
made out, and is still, I might, indeed, without having taken 
any unwarranted liberty with truth, have omitted every one of 
these decimals and added a round diget to each whole 
number. 

The next obvious inquiry now is — may not a country have 
a large per centage of arable land and that arable land to be 
poor land ? 

Me(Jiiila'j!;h, in his Geographical Dictionary, has answered 
this question as follows : " Ireland has no stiif clay soils, 
such as those of Essex, Hants, Oxford, etc., nor any chalk 
soil, as those of Hertford, Wilts and Sussex. ' Sandy soils are 
also rare. Loam, resting on a sub-stratum of limestone, pre- 
dominates in Ireland, and, though often shallow, it is almost 
everywhere very fertile. A large part of Limerick, Tippe- 
rary, Eoscommon, Meath and Longford, consist of deep, fine, 
friable loam, and is, perhaps, not surpassed by any land in 
Europe. It is not permanently injured by the bad system of 
culture to which it is subjected, and, if kept clean, will yield 
an almost interminable series of corn crops; and, how bad 
soever the order in which it is laid down to grass, it is in no 
long time covered with the finest pasture. The deep, rich 
grazing lands on the banks of the Shannon and Fergus are 
not surpassed by the best in Licolnshire, [England.] A good 
judge of such matters, Arthur Young, contends that, acre for 
acre, the soil of Ireland is superior to that of England ; 
though, as the proportion of waste land in the former is much 
greater than in the latter country, we incline to think this an 
exaggerated statement. But, had Mr. Young confined his 
remark to the cultivatable land in both countries, it would 
have been quite correct. In fact, if we deduct the bogs and 
mountains, we believe that Ireland is about the richest 
country, in respect of soil, in Europe. As a grazing country, 
she is probably superior to any other, and, certainly, is sur- 
passed by none." 



[65] 



CHAPTER XXXVI. — ANNUAL VALUK OF REAL ESTATE. 

"What else is essential to a thorough knowledge of the 
industrial resources of Ireland ? 

The sarae that is required to know any other country in a 
similar way — its flora, its fauna, its mineral productions, its 
native exports, and its collective annual wealth. 

What do you mean by the flora and fauna of a territory? 

These are natural-history terms, applied, respectively, to 
the vegetable and animal productions of countries, and are to 
botany and zoology what topography is to geograph}-. 

How can the annual wealth of a nation be ascertained ? 

By its rental, the surveying of crops, the census of its great 
annual fairs, its home consumption, and its exports. 

Is the precise rental of Ireland known? 

It is not. A few thousand proprietors hold all the land 
of Ireland, and are restrained b}'- no law fi'om charging any 
rents they please. Data, however, are not wanting, from which 
social i^hilosophers have made calculations on this head. 
About the close of last century, the rental of Ireland was 
computed at Ucelve millions of pounds sterling. Wakefield sets 
it down at seventeen millions, English money, in the year 
1812; and Mr. Smyth, in hig ^'■Ireland, Statistical and Historical^'' 
is more precise, when he states the present rental of Ireland 
at £21,394,675, or about one hundred millions of American 
money, annually ! 

In what way, and to what extent does rent represent annual 
wealth ? 

If of land, it may represent one-half, one-third, one-fourth, 
one-fifth, or some other fraction of the annual produce of that 
land. On the estates of Lord Mount Cashel, for instance, the 
annual produce of the soil is supposed to be four times tha 
value of the rent — the proprietor claiming one-fourth, and 
recognising to the producer, or tenant, three-fourths. But in 
Ireland this is a theory of rare application, if, indeed, it be not 
applied the other way — the one being more like the tenant's 
share than is the three. McCuUagh accounts for the great 
exportations of live stock, in particular of pigs, from Ireland, 
by saying that it is owing to " the anxiety of the peasantry to 
9 



[6C] 

pay their rent, though at the expense of their comforts'^ — a state- 
ment which admits of no dispute. 

Docs not the Ordnance Survey, or the Poor-Rate Valuation 
inform us respecting the annual worth of real estate in Ire- 
land? 

Mr. Griffiths is the greatest individual authority on this 
point ; but consistency compels us to follow the valuation 
under the Poor-Law, which is as follows : — 

ANNUAL VALUE OF THE SEVERAL COUNTIES. 



AnUxm £ l,3J4,77'i | Kerry :Wl,4r>H 

Cork 1.288,828 Derrv .3:U.Se3 

DuMin 1,219,528 L(3iith 327,867 

Tippeiary 8S7,fi78 I Kilkenny 327,733 

Limerick 647,822 ' Mayo .326.4r,l 

Down o81,81.i i Wicklow :n4,.'> 



Meiitli 537,870 

Gulway 511,840 

Wi-xford 443,2ti3 

Kildaro 365,458 

Tyrone 303,737 



West Meatli 300,925 

King's County 29,5,109 

Clare 292,985 

Waterforrt 289,124 

Boscommon 282,274 



Uonepal 282,000 

Armagh 203,579 

Mouiighan 262,0.15 

C:nan 260.175 

Longford 226,870 

Fermanagh 180,181 

Carlow 173,930 

Queen's County 168.750 

Leitrim ir)2,.562 

Sligo 145,950 



Total, £13,738.9(57 (about 568.000,000) 

How can this table be reconciled with those of the last 
chapter? Here Antrim is set down as the richest county in 
the kingdom, while the former data make Cork more than 
twice as large ; and Meath, with nineteen other counties, more 
fertile ? 

The incongruity is merely apparent. The former tables 
refer to nature, alone; but in the present case it is obvious that 
artificial interests are included. The great commercial prepon- 
derance of Belfast more than counterbalances the eight hun- 
dred square miles of consolidated lava, which has notorious 
Knocklayde for its nucleus, and the long, central, ban-en pla- 
teau for its course. 

Does not this single fact beautifully illustrate the truth 
which is so conspicuously established in the history of Hol- 
land : that a territory naturally unfortunate may become arti- 
ficially prosperous, by genius and energy ? 

Very true; but genius, with all its originality, follows nature, 
and energy, with all its nervousness, can not swim against the 
tide. " There is a tide in the affairs of men," which throws 
back nations, even when the tide of nature is in their favor. 
Antrim is an illustration of the one truth, while all Ireland 
shows forth the other ; and the county and the kingdom jios- 



[C7] 

sess tliis further peculiar relationship in this point of view : 
the linen manufacture, to which Belfast OAves its commercial 
importance, in a great measure, and which raises the County 
of Antrina to the top of the above list, was far behind the 
woolen manufacture of Ireland at the time of William of 
Orange, who expressly destroj'ed tlie latter, because it inter- 
fered greatly, in the foreign market, with the woolen manufac- 
tures of England! To compensate for this unparalleled wrong, 
which is fully avowed and plainly written in the English 
statute book, William promised to encourage the linen manu- 
facture of Ulster. 

" To rear that lordly mansion high, 
The country round for miles ia stript." 

CHAPTER XXXVII. — ANNUAL VALUE OF CHATTEL ESTATE. 

Looking at the aggregate of those figures just given, they 
appear to me to contradict the estimated rental of Mr. Smyth ? 

JRent has been continually rising in Ireland, as the land is 
improving; and even Lord Mount Cashel, who has pretensions 
to be considered a humane landlord, avows that he expects a 
full fourth of the produce of his estates, no matter from how 
low to how high a state the labor and outlay of his tenantry 
may bring that produce. Mr. Smyth's deductions are much 
later than those just given, but those just given are the stand- 
ard. It must, however, be borne in mind that neither repre- 
sents the chattel property of the country, but the " dead " 
annual value of unremovable property, as land and houses. 

I should like, then, to know the chattel property of Ireland? 

That I can't, and must not tell you now, even if I could ; 
for chattel property is artificial, as well as natural, and we are 
not yet done with physical geography. But separating the 
one from the other, we have the following figures from the 
census of 1841 : 

THB XIVES-TOCK OF IRELAND. 

Horses and Mules, 570,115 at £8 . . , , . £4,608,920 

Assses, 92,365 at 1 92,3(55 

Cattle, 1,863,115 at 6 10s, . . . . 12,110,250 

Pigs, 1,412,809 at 1 6s. . . . . . l,7(l(i,012 

Sheep, 2,106,187 at 1 2s 2,316,806 

Poultry, 8,458,200 at 6d 211,455 



Total value of live stock in 1841, . . £20,105,808 



[08] 

('Pi'ecisely, ninety-six and a half millions of dollars.) 
Are these data reliable? 

As much so as human reliability can make researches of so 
complicated and difficult a nature. The enumeration of the 
people and of the animals of Ireland takes place in one night 
every ten j'ears ; and that just given professes to be true for 
the summer of 1841, or, more strictly speaking, for the one 
night in which that enumeration was made. 

Why not quote from the census of 1851, which is'so much 
later ? 

Because the latter does not " hold the mirror up to nature." 
Though as reliable as the former, the census of '51, for cer- 
tain reasons, is a libel on the productive capacity of Ireland, 
and would quite mislead you in forming correct notions of that 
capacity. The cause will be adverted to hereafter, under the 
head of " Population." 

Can you now tell me, in the same satisfactory manner, the 
exact quantities of wheat, oats, rye, barley, potatoes, etc., which 
the country has j'ielded in any one year, or which it annually 
yields, one year with another? 

I can not, for no account of such is kept ; but, it has been 
the custom of the Irish Government, for many years, to require 
the constabular}", or country police, (who are, also, the efficient 
agents by whom the decennial census is so precisely and 
cleverly taken in one night,) to send yearly returns to the 
Eegistrar-General of the number of acres under each crop. 
Classified abstracts of these annual returns are forwarded to 
the Irish newspapers, and thus, by an arrangement which is 
unknown to the social sj^stem of England and Scotland, and, 
for aught I know, is peculiar to Ireland, the precise annual 
produce of this country is better known than that of, perhaps, 
any other nation of Europe. 

What must be the motive on the part of the Government to 
which this exceptional policj- is traceable? 

What ever the motive may have been, the thing itself is 
obviously good, provided no use be made of the knowledge so 
obtained to injui'e those who give it. By this plan, absentee 
landloi'ds, who squeeze all they can from the tillers of the soil 
and never spend a shilling of it among them, have a check 
upon the reports of their middlemen, or agents, and can see 



[C9] 



from London, Paris, or Constantinople, how their Irish estates i 
are laid out, how ranch is under wheat, oate, rye, barley, how 
much under grass, and whether this or that 3'ear be the favora- 
ble one for demanding arrears or raising the rent! British 
merchants calculate from these returns, for the sister island 
draws more provision froni Ireland than from all the rest of 
the world ! 



SUPPLEMENT A L . 

One of those agricultural returns, above specified, is sura- ;| 

marised in the following, which is taken frora the " JVcury jj 

KT-aminer," while under the conduct of the writer. The report jj 

here commented on relates to the year 1857, and is, therefore, j; 

the last, but one, that has been issued : — j| 

!J 
In all Ireland it would appear, that in 1857 there were 
5,860,089 statute acres under tillage. So says the agricultural 
report just ])ubli8hed. Since the word " tillage " comprehends 
the cultivated grasses, as clover and meadow, as well as cereal 
and green crops, we have here all the land in this island, 

" From the center all round to the sea," 

which has been scratched this year, with a plough-share or a 
spade. It ought to interest us, how this cultivated quantity 
has been disposed of About a tenth of all the cultivated land 
in Ireland, this j'^ear, has been under wheat; a third under 
oats ; a fifth under potatoes; and barley, here, rj-e, beans, peas, 
turnips, and other green crojjs make up, together, about an 
eighth. This one-tenth, one-third, one-fifth, and one-eighth, 
amount, in the aggregate, to three-fourths of all the cultivated 
land in Ireland; leaving one-fourth for the cultivated grasses 
and flax. We have taken the trouble to reduce the quantities 
of the report into that form of expression, as being popular 
and intelligible ; but here are the precise figures, for whoever 
prefers the data this way : 



[70] 



Wheat, . , _ . . . . . 562,581 

Oats, ... . . . . 1.978,878 

Barley, Bere, Rye, Beans, and Peas, . . 246,"257 

Potatoes, , . .... 1.146,920 

Turnips, , . . . . . 348,964 

Other green crops, . . . . . 107,904' 

Flax, . . ,. ; . . . . 98,074 

Meadow and clover, ..... 1.369,421 

These figures are much bigger than the corresponding ones 
for last year, except those which refer to oats, turnips, and 
flax, which crops have fallen off this year, as compared with 
1856: — 

Acres. 
Oats, less than last year, . . i . 58,559 

Turnips, '< « u ^ , . . . 4,487 

Flax, u- H ,i , ^ , • . 8,237 

Making a total falling off, on those three crops, of 71.283. 
But these seventy-one thousand acres are far from having been 
fallow. They have gone to swell the wheat, potato, green and 
barley crops to this extent : — 

Acres. 
Wheat, more than last year, .... 33,531 

Potatoes, <'"»". . . . 42,216 

These two crops alone account for the seventy-one thousand 
above, and leave a balance of 4.464. 

Green crops more than last year, . . . 7,908 

Barley, bere, rye, beans, and peas, . . . 27,536 

Meadow and clover increase, . . . . 66,634 

Making a total increase in cereal, meadow, and green crops, 
of 106,542 acres over last year. 

It is curious and significant to note the jirogressive spread 
of the potato. Here are the quantities for the last six 
years : — 

Acres. 

1852 . ... . . . 876,532 

1853 . . . . . . . 898,733 

1854 . . . . . . . 989,690 

1855 . . . . . ; . 882,301 

1856 : . . . . . - . : . 1.104,704 

1857 . . . . . .- . 1.146,920 



[71] 

Increase in 1853, over the preceding year, 22,201 acres ; in 
1854, over 1853, 90,957 acres ; in the next year, a small falling 
off; but in 1856, the increase rose to a quarter of a million, 
nearly ; and this year it is still higher, by the amount stated 
above. 

As potatoes and pigs are co-existent in Ireland, we have the 
great increase of 333,626 pigs this year, more than the'number 
last year; the number last year not having been quite a mil- 
lion, while the number this year exceeds a million and a 
quarter. The value of this million and a quarter, is set down 
as £1.565,199, which is not very far from the value of the pig 
market before the failure of the potato. Ecferring to Thorn's 
Almanac for the census of 1811, the pig stock for that year, in 
Ireland, is valued at £1.766,012, not very much, as we have 
said, above that for the present year ; thus showing a rapid 
return to the days of pork and potatoes. 

But the increase in cattle and sheep is very striking : — 

Value of sheep in 1841 .... £2.310,806 

" " 1857 .... 3.793,549 

In sheep alone, there is here an increase of near a million and 
a half of money ; and this is more than a quarter of a million 
sterling less than that for last year. In cattle there is a double 
increase this year, — an increase over 1856 of £199.459, and 
an increase over the year of the great census which is quite 
striking : — 

Cattle, (value of,) 1841 . . . £12.110,250 

" " " 1857 .... 23.520,53U 

Thank God, this is very cheering. But we fear very much 
there is a heartache inside this gold lace. Speaking of the 
numbers of the fine peasantry of Tipperary, especially in the 
Barony of Middlethird, who are leaving the country, a south- 
ern cotemporary expresses his apprehension that agriculture 
must give place to grass in that quarter. Perhaps this is the 
case already in many other places, (for instance, Donegal) and 
sufficiently so to account for the above enormous increase in 
the value of live stock. Indeed, now that we reflect on the 
question, we have no doubt whatever about it ; and here is our 



[72 I 

indisputable proof: In that year, namely, 1841, the population 
was returned at 8,175,124. The census of 1851 gives the pop- 
ulation at 6,552,385, and the returns which now lie before us 
say the number of our people has further fallen " to 6,047,301, 
on the first of January, 1857." From thi» number must be 
taken the seventy-two thousand emigrants who left this year, 
up to the first of September, on "which day, (births and all 
included,) our population stood at 6,015,708 ! Good God, what 
wholesale sweeping ! We now retract that expression above ; 
for, instead of being " cheering," this two hundred per cent, 
increase of brutes is simply another way of saying, " a noble 
peasantry, its country's pride," has been destroj'^ed, and can 
never be supplied, except by — live stock ! " 



CHAPTER XXXVIII. MINERAL RESOURCES. 

Having examined the soil and its productions, vegetable and 
animal, let us now see if the rocks of Ireland can be turned to 
any industrial account? 

Very well ; but on this branch of our topic less is known 
than on any other subject connected with Irish indu.stry. It 
is agreed on all hands, however, that Ireland possesses in her 
mountains and hills, and even in her plains, a body of mineral 
wealth of which only the outer croppings have been yet 
touched ; and how much countries, in all ages, have been en- 
riched by their mineral resources the history' of commerce 
shows. To her coal and iron England's manufacturing emi- 
nence and consequent commercial standing are mainly owing. 
The prosperity of Belgium flows, in a great measure, from a 
similar source. When confederated Europe surrounded France, 
after the Hevolution, excluding her with a wall of bayonets 
from the family of nations, spider-like she found in her own 
bowels the materials of that iron net-work which she soon 
threw over the whole European s^'stem. While California and 
Victoria, springing almost instantly into compact political 
systems and a high civilization, arc still more remarkable 
effects from the same cause — mineral wealth. 

As far, then, as is known of the mineral wealth of Ireland, 
I should like to follow you in this inquiry? 



[73] 

Perhaps the coal of England, or the steel of Styria, or the 
silver of Peru, or the gold of California, is not of more value 
to the nation or the continent than the plain limestone of 
Ireland. For much of that vegetable and animal wealth 
spoken of in the last chapters, is directly traceable to lime as a 
mineral and lime as a manure. As a mineral, its influence on 
the subsoil is warm and fertilizing, counteracting the super- 
abundant humidit}^; and, as a manure, its golden returns are 
far more certain and bounteous than the quartz-crushing pro- 
cesses of Bendigo or Mount St. Charles. In Galway, and other 
counties, the limestone is found crystallized into marble, and is 
exported as such to England. 

How extensive is this rock in Ireland? 

More so than any other. It occupies the whole central 
plain and crops out in the valleys of the volcanic rocks. It is 
also found on the tops of some of the mountains — for instance, 
of Belmore, in Fermanagh, where it is six hundred and fifty 
feet thick, but, generally speaking, it is much lower than the 
same class of rock in England, which, from its elevation, is 
there termed the "mountain limestone." Limestone rocks are 
of two kinds, upper and lower ; the former is rugged, splintery, 
and cliffy, and in it are found the great caves of Dunmore and 
Clopooke, in the Queen's County; but this rock is very limited 
in Ireland, its place being better filled by the lower limestone, 
which greets the farmer in every county of Ireland, and 
realizes the full moral of ^Esop's beautiful fable of the hidden 
treasure. 

Which are the other economic rocks of Ireland? 

Eough, and fine-grained granite — gray, brown, blue, and 
reddish slate — white, black, striped, and mottled marbles — 
millstone, freestone, ironstone, coal, rocksalt, copper, lead and 
silver, with sulphur, porphyry, felspar, manganese, antimony, 
zinc, nickel, gypsum ochres, beryls, diamonds, and " the 
greatest formation of true alum in Europe." 

CHAPTER XXXIX. — COAL. 

"What " other places " in Ireland did you refer to in Chap- 
ter XIV, as yielding native coal ? 

Besides Coal Island, Kilkenny and Tipperary, the other 
10 



[74] 

places possessing cofil are Antrim, Eoscommon, Monaghan, 
Leiti'im, Clare, Limerick, Kerry, and Cork. Anahone and 
Driunglas collieries, as well as those of Coal Island, are in Ty- 
rone. The Connaught coal district has Lough Allen for its 
center, and a periphery, which embraces parts of Fermanagh, 
Sligo and Cavan, and is calculated to contain about twenty 
thousand acres of coal, or twenty millions of tons. 

Where have you got this big figure? 

From the Keport of the Kailway Commissioners of 1838 ; 
and the Munster coal-field, embracing, as it does, near half 
that province, is described by Mr, M'Nevin as "the most ex- 
tensive development of coal strata in the British Empire." 

Considering the great colleries of England, Wales, and Scot- 
land, some of which are worked to such a vast depth, even 
under the bed of the sea, rivaling in extent the salt excava- 
tions of Cracow, and considering the facts stated in our Four- 
teenth conversation, does not this statement of Mr. M'Nevin 
look like a violation of strict truth ? 

So it does ; and yet, if arithmetic be allowed to decide the 
matter, I believe it would bear out that writer. However, the 
fact appears to be, that while, superficially, the Munster coal- 
field is one of the most extensive in Europe, its depth is not 
known, and no part of it has been yet found to yield gas; 
consequently, in the present state of things, Ireland is far 
behind the sister island in respect to mineral fuel. This fact 
is felt, and must be admitted, till geological research discovers 
in Ireland some more extensive deposit of bltumenous coal than 
is yet known in the north. 

Am 1 to understand that the coal found in the nortb of 
Ireland is bitumenous and that of the south anthracite? 

Exactlj^ so; a line drawn from Dublin Bay to Galvvay Bay 
divides the two districts, that to the north yields brilliant and 
profuse gas— that to the south, particularly in Kilkenny, has 
coal so pure as to require no flue to protect the ceiling or 
drapery — a singular if not a beautiful feature in the industrial 
development of the countr3^ Of this coal, 95 per cent, is pure 
carbon. 

How extensive is the Kilkenny coal-field ? 

Look at the map — that district between the rivers Barrow 
and Nore is the Leinster coal section, and the great collieries 



[75] 

of Castlecomer yield about 120,000 tons annually. Those of 
Tipperary yield about half that quantity; but both are evi- 
dently the same coal-field, being divided by only a strip of 
limestone. 

Of all the Irish collieries, which are considered the most 
important at the present moment? 

Those of Tyrone hold the first phtce; those of Kilkenny 
stand next, and those of Cork, appear to be third in im- 
portance. 



CHAPTER XL. — IRON. 

I have now a satisfactory idea of the nature and extent of 
coal in Ireland — what next? 

Coal and iron, by a benevolent and miraculous coincidence 
in nature, are generally found in the same territory, and in 
some territories, as England, for instance, they are ahnost co- 
extensive. These two minerals are greater agents of civiliza- 
tion than all the others put together. 

Does this coincidence exist in Ireland ? 

It does. Almost every locality just named possesses iron 
ore, though very little of it is worked. Sir William Petty (the 
Griffiths of his day,) says, that no fewer than 6,600 smelting 
iron factories were in full blast in Ireland about a hundred 
and seventy years ago ! — a very remarkable fact, which can not 
be controverted, as Petty was the government authority of 
those daja. Yet, in 1838, when Mr. Griffiths wrote his "Out- 
line," the Arigna iron works were the only ones in operation 
in the island ! 

Where are those situated ? 

On the little river Arigna, in the north of Roscommon, near 
the west bank of Lough Allen, which is the center of one of 
the richest metalliferous regions in Ireland. Here are moun- 
tains so economically constituted that the same one yields 
different valuable minerals. Brahlieve, for instance, out of 
which the little stream just named rises, has a valuable coal- 
mine on its summit, building-stone at its base, and millstone 
of a superior quality between ; and Cuilcagh, at the other side 
of the lake, in Cavan, is a table-land inviting industry to a 



[76] 



still greater variety. " Many of the flattened ironstone 
spheroids (of Cuilcaffh) are extromely large, and some which 
are reticulated by veins of calcareous spar, present magnificent 
specimens of septaria. Within the last century many small 
iron works, or bloomeries, were carried on in the valle}^ of 
Swanlinbar," the iron ore having been got in this mountain, 
and the woods of the valley supplying the fuel; but now the 
woods are nearly all gone, and the works, with a few ex- 
ceptions, have consequently ceased. 

Can human ingenuity, then, take no advantage of that 
natural coincidence which unites coal and iron in the bowels 
of the earth ? 

It can, and does, in England, notwithstanding that a few 
large forests are still there; but the discovery is a late one, 
and till it was made the English factories of this class had 
ceased, also, for a time. Coal will not smelt iron, but coke of 
a certain kind will ; and recent experiments made in Ireland 
have shown, that the anthracite of Leinster and Munster will 
serve the same purpose. Experiments have also been made, 
with the same design, upon the coke of compressed peat, 
which can be made as dense as any coal, and the results are 
likewise represented as highly favorable — a discovery of in- 
calculable importance to Ireland. 

You might, then, have enumerated this among the uses of 
peat as catalogued in our conversation on the bogs? 

Perhaps so ; but the results of its practical application are 
yet to be seen. A theory may look beautiful in experiment, 
and utterly disappoint in practice. 

What is the quality of the iron ores of Ireland ? 

That of Kilkenny is represented as equal to that of Lough 
Allen; and that of Lough Allen as equalled only by the black- 
band ironstone of Glasgow. The Arigna iron ore has some 
beds two feet thick, and enough to last two furnaces in con- 
stant blast for near three hundred years. The ores of Kerry 
are well known. Petty himself worked the Blackstones' mine, 
near Lough Carragh, which exhausted the fine woods of 
Glencarre ; and, if I recollect rightly, the father of another 
celebrated writer, Mrs. Hall, worked one of the several other 
ores in the same metalliferous region. 



[77] 

CHAPTER XLI. COPPER, LEAD, SILVER. 

"Which of all the metals is most diffused in Ireland? 

Perhaps lead ; and copper occupies the next place in point 
of extent. Silver is found, in connection with lead, in all the 
mines of the latter. The copper mines, however, appear to 
be the most remunerative of this group. 

Which, then, are the principal copper mines of the country, 
and where situated? 

The principal are in Wicklow, Waterford, Cork, and Kerry. 
The " Sweet Vale of Avoca" is not richer in beauty than in 
goodness. Here have been worked, for a series of years, 
several copper mines of great capacity and quality. On the 
north bank of that lovely stream are the mines of Cronebane, 
Connorec, and Tigroney; on the south, those of Ballymurtagh 
and Ballygahan. 

Which of these is the most valuable? 

Perhaps the first named. That of Ballj-murtagh, however, 
has been worked from a remoter date ; but a disagreement 
having arisen between the proprietors, which caused opera- 
tions to cease for a while, a third party stepped across the 
stream and commenced to explore the hill of Cronebane. As 
in the fable which gives the booty to the fox while the lion 
and tiger are fighting for it, a body of metallic wealth was thus 
discovered, which threw that of Ballymurtagh and every other 
then known in the country completely into the shade. This 
hill is a natural magazine of valuable minerals ; a single shaft 
passes down through an ore of iron, an ore of lead mixed with 
silver, an ore of silver rock, and, lastly, the rich copper ore ! 
The silver rock yields seventy-five ounces of pure silver to the 
ton of ore — the single ton yielding at the same time much 
lead ; while the underlying copper ore is about thirty times 
richer ! 

Point me out the situations of the other mines referred to ? 

The copper ores of Waterford, which are now worked by 
the "Mining Company of Ireland," are on the coast, between 
Dungarvan and Tramore, at the mouth of the little river 
Mahon. They are known as the "Knockmahon Mines," and 
are four in number. In the single year of 1843 the copper 
produce of this one locality realized some $300,000. Over a 



[78] 



thousand jjersons are constantly employed in these mines. 
The others are in that romantic corner of the island -where the 
mountains of Cork and Kerry present their united iron fronts 
to the roaring ocean. 

Any thing particular respecting these latter? 

The Audley mines are as rich as those of Cronebano, con- 
taining as they do about eight per cent, of copper, while they 
are calculated to extend over five thousand acres. Berehaven 
yields ten per cent, of pure copper, which exceeds the average 
produce of the great mines of Cornwall, (England.) That of 
Allihies is better known, though the yield in 1843 was only 
about half that of Waterford. The copper mines of Killarney 
have employed five hundred men daily, and the ore sells from 
£14 to £40 per ton. 

Please to shorten these dry details, by telling me the aggre- 
gate value of all these mines in any one year? 

At this inconvenient distance, the only returns I can lay mj^ 
hand on are for the three years, 1836, 1840 and 1843; and 
the average yield of Irish copper ore for any one of these years 
was 19,636 tons, sold in Swansea for £136,467, or something 
over half a million, one hundred thousand dollars. 

Where is Swansea ? 

It is a seaport in the south of Wales, on the British Channel, 
to which place all the copper ore of Ireland and Cornwall is 
sent to be smelted; as it is deemed more convenient, since the 
mines have used up the local woods, to send the ore to the fuel 
than to bring the fuel to the ore. 

Now as to the lead inines of Ireland? 

In Wicklow alone, near a dozen have been opened and 
worked, from time to time ; the principal of which are those 
of Ballycorus, Glenmalure, and Glendalough. Mines of this 
metal have been also worked in Clare, Down, Armagh, Louth, 
Cork, Waterford, Tipperary, Dublin, and lead is found in Gal- 
wa}^, Longford, Kildare, Meath, and other counties. One general 
fact must suffice, in this case, for many particular ones : lead 
abounds in every quarter of the countrj', and wherever lead is, 
there is silver to a greater or less degree. 

Can you give me any idea of the proportions which the 
lead and silver bear to each other and to the ore, in a given 
quantity of the latter ? 



[79] 

At Bailycorus (the Swansea of Ireland as respects load) 674 
tons of ore have yielded 460 tons of pure lead — a very high 
per centnge; and the proportion of silver ranges from three to 
one hundred and twenty ounces to the ton of the other metal. 
Clare yields the maximum proportion of silver, which is also 
found in large quantities at Silvermines in the adjoining 
county of Tipperary. 



CHAPTER XLII. — OTHER MINERAL PRODUCTIONS. 

Are the other mineral j^roductions of the country a source 
of wealth ? 

Certainly. The marbles of Ireland are of almost every tint; 
black, white, striped, mottled, green, gray, brown, red, flesh- 
colored. Statuary marble is met with in Donegal andGalway, 
which M'Cullagh allows to be " nearly equal to that of Italy." 
Almost every county in Connaught and Munster yields marble 
of a fine quality. The speckled black, of Kilkenny, is exten- 
sively used at home and abroad for mantle-pieces. Mines are 
met with, also, in Carlow, Longford, King's Countj^ Westmeath, 
Armagh, and several other places. Irish marbles are now 
exported to several states of America, and have been long 
used in Great Britain. 

Are any other Irish minerals exported ? 

Slate and sulphur are abundant in Ireland. The great 
southern clay-slate deposit, which extends from the BarroAv to 
Valentia, possesses an inexhaustible supply of slate, much of 
which is exported. Slate quarries abound, also, in the north 
and west, while the numerous sulphuric and chalybeate springs 
reveal the existence of sulphur and iron in localities as yet 
unknown to the miner. AVicklow sulphur has been exported 
to the extent of 100,000 tons per annum. 

Any thing else in the same direction? 

Till a few years ago Ireland was dependant on England for 
salt; and for a long time it was thought that the first named 
country had none of this indispensable mineral. Within the 
last few years inexhaustible supplies, "rivaling those for which 
England has long been famous," have been discovered — a 
capital illustration of how little is known, as yet, of the mineral 



[80] 

resources of the Emerald Isle. Excellent native rock-salt is 
now mined in Antrim, near Carrickfergus. Mineral paints, 
coarse porcelain, pottery, and such plastic claj^s, are found in 
Tipperarj, Cork, and other parts of the country, and whole 
districts of the sea shore consist of strands of minute marine 
shells, which yield lime for manure to an infinite extent, of 
which the peasantry of those parts take annual advantage.* 



* Shultz, the botanist, regretted that the floras of "two great islands" of 
Europe, Ireland and Sardinia, were unknown ; and he might have added 
(says somebody else) that the fauna of Ireland is also unwritten. M'Cul- 
lagh says, " the broad-leaved myrtle grows luxuriously in the Leinster 
counties, and the arbutus is not native to any other country so remote from 
the equator." It grows, without fosterage, all through Munster; but at 
Killarney the deep emerald of its leaves and the scarlet of its berries 
relieve so finely the gray rocks, the sparkling bubbles, and the variegated 
foliage of the woods. Respecting our fauna, the defunct Irish moose deer, 
or elk, whose skeletons, found in the bogs, may be seen in the Dublin and 
British Museums, is, perhaps, the most perfect, as it is, on account of its 
gigantic proportions, one of the noblest of geological fossils. The Irish 
gray-hound is unequalled for size, strength, grace, and swiftness. With 
these remarks, we dismiss these two subjects; but the Fisheries of the 
country are too important to be so treated, and, constituting a feature of 
the social system in that country, as they do, will not be out of place in the 
second division of this publication. The first, devoted to nature, is now 
concluded. 



[81] 



SOCIAL G E O G E A P II Y . 

CHArTER XLIII. DEDUCTIONS FROM THE PRECEDINO. 

I sliould now like to know, if the phj'sical fucts just explained 
afford any solution of the social state of Ireland in the present 
or the past? 

Most certainl}'' they do. In the past, tlie situation, climate, 
scenery and resources of the country lie at the bottom of the 
historical current in that quarter, accounting for its smooth 
and turbid, its clear and mudd}', its dark and sparkling course 
of two thousand years. In the present, the fertility of the soil 
and its peculiar adaptability for the growth of the potato, which 
is strongly suspected to be the dough in the loaf of population, 
explaining its great tendency to swell, as shown by the census 
of 1821, '31 and '41, with other natural causes just referred to, 
in conjunction with political circumstances, have thrown the 
vast body of the people upon agriculture, and thus a promi- 
Bcnt feature of existing social phenomena is accounted tor. 

Be more explicit — how does the situation of Ireland help to 
unravel the thread of its history? 

Is it not obvious, that to strike a man down or lift hira np, 
you must be near him ; and to do the one or the other repeat- 
edly, is impossible to an}' but a neighbor. Thus Spain lost 
Mexico, Portugal lost Brazil, and England the United States; 
thus China still remains wrapt np in her exclusiveness, and 
thus India has thrown off for ever the incubus of a commer- 
cial turanos, dictating from the Thames. Temptation in the 
moral world, like attraction in the physical, depends on dis- 
tance, which negatives the loadstone iisclf, Avhile proximity is 
always nudging force to make the spring. Mr. Gavan Duffy 
placed the recent bold I'ront of th(>, Australians to the home 
power and the new constitution of Victoria, to the credit of the 
Atlantic Ocean ! 

But what has this to do with Ireland? 

It illustrates more than six hundred years of its modern his- 
tor}^, and shows why the Roman Legions never crossed swords 
with Crimthan or Dathy on Irish soil; while those of Den- 
11 



[821 



mark and England so often tried the battle axe of Boru, and 
the pike of O'Neill. 

Vriuit social feature of Ireland is traecable to elimate? 

The lieaith, streiigth and wiry endurance of its people in 
every age, as testilied to by native and foreign writera. The 
absence of venomous reptiles is also a social blessing attribu- 
table to the same cause. 

I can not so easily see what scenery has to do with social 
ari-ungements? 

It certainly renders a land lovable, and is thus an element of 
patriotism. It imperceptibly forms taste, and thus comes 
xinder the artistic axiom "look on beaut}'' and be refined." A 
lovo of the beautiful is inspired bj' beaut}^ the taste of whicli 
sweetens us unto moralit}', and morality in the elder sister of 
religion. It is very noticeable that almost ever}' lovely spot in 
Ireland is wedded to ecclesiastical history, by saintly memories 
and hoi}' ruins; behold Glendolough, Inisfallen, Clonmacnoise, 
Lismore, Iniscatery, Arran More, Kong, Holy Cross, <tc. 

Can you now point to any correspontling effects in the habits 
of individuals or the customs of the countr}'? 

If I do, it is not to attribute them exclusively to this cause. 
The women are proverbially chaste, the men incorruptible, and 
both hold a first place among the most religious peo])le on the 
face of the earth. They have given the most surprising proofs 
of love of country, attachment to religious conviction, and 
recognition of truth to be met Avith in modern history ; if 
seveji million of dollars, remitted from America alone, in one 
year, by the poor exiles of Erin, be a proof of the first; if 
three centuries of endured religious proscription be a test of 
the second ; and the great moral revolution of Father Mathew 
be a criterion of the third. 

And, now, as to the resources of the country, I suppose these 
are still more intimately connected with its social history, as 
inviting those foreign aggressions, and thus explaining many 
a red page of its chronicles. 

This is the kernel of the whole question. Cromwell is re- 
ported to have said, as he looked down on the Golden Yale from 
the hills of Tipperary, and consoled his mj-rmidons for the 
loss of some two thousand of their comrades before the walls of 
Cionmol — " My men, is not that a country worth fighting for !" 



[83] 

His Strongbownian predecessors are reported as bavinc^ ox- 
pressed the same idea, and it must be allowed in justice to the 
foreigners, that as far back as Irish history goes from the first 
Danish Invasion, this appears to have been the practical motto 
of the native chiefs also. Thus the greatest natural blessing 
became a standing social curse. Another, but a very diflerent 
social effect of those abundant resources, was that large hospi- 
tality which has characterized the individual and the commu- 
nity, in that country, from the remotest times. 



HIST O R Y . 

CHAPTER XLIV. — ABORIGINAL PER10I>.* 

It is the expressed opinion of one (Doctor O'Donovan,) who 
has done more for Irish historj^ and topograph}^ than, per- 
haps, any living man, that there is no portion of our annals 
bearing upon an}* period previous to the fifth century, which 
can be relied upon as authentic history. Yet many portions of 
those ancient records are not only in consonance with our 
knowledge of nature, and the physical geography of the 
country, but are also corroborated by received cotemporaneous 
history, and illustrated by reliqucs and monuments of tho 
highest antiquity. When to all this be added deep-rooted tra- 
ditions bearing in the same direction, whose antiquity as estab- 
lished bj'the remote writers who notice them, such asNennius, 
Bede, and Barry of Wales, is an important fact in itself, quite 
apart from their truth or falsity. Of course we do not hesitate 

* In explanation of the length of this chapter, and the absence therein, 
of the interrogatory form, it was "written in ISSf), in compliance with the 
request of a clergyman, who was then engaged in the compilation of a trea- 
tise on Ireland, and personally unknown to me, save as the author of one 
original work of repute, and some translations from the Italian. I was sur- 
prised at his calling on an obscure individual of very limited historical 
information, but he was directed, he said, by Gavan Duft'y. My instructions 
were to go behind the Christian Era, and account for the first'peopling of the 
island, to be brief, and avoid all the fables and vezata'- qne^tionet which 
obscure that segment of the historical horizon in the longitude of lerne. 
As dispatch was required, this hasty lucubration was the result which I feel 
now, I have no opportunity to make better. 



[84] 

to reject ns false, because opposed to our knowledge of nature, 
and tlie present latitude of the island, the story of a Milesi- 
an chief descrying the coast of Ireland from the heights of 
I'Jraganza ; 3'Ct the very discovery of this flourish of the imag- 
ination in a manuscript whose antiquity can be vouched for, is 
a liistorical fact in itself, of xery positive significance, respec- 
ting one disputed point in our annals. We do not reject the 
whole .Eneid because of the wooden horse, and because almost 
every fact therein, is blended witli a poet's fancies. We hold a 
suspicion that those fancies are the blossoms of some hidden 
grain of truth, and so we look around for the Homeric means 
to disinter it. Tlie few, but highly significant allusions to 
Ireland in tiic Grceic and Latin writers, should serve a similar 
]>urpose. Tacitus says, the ports of Ireland were better known 
in the second century for commerce and traders, than those of 
Britain. A single fact like this, though only as a pin-hole in a 
dungeon, reveals a whole landsctipe of historical inferences. 
Nothing is alone in nature, and nothing is alone in society, and 
every fact is a hook upon which Jiangs many a circumstance; 
but sometimes it takes the eyes of a Kewtcjn to see circum- 
stances which have been falling since the creation. And some- 
times men are less discriminating in their way than children ; 
for, like Ledwidge, the^' see no alternative but to swallow the 
tinsel or throw away the ginger-bread. Embellishment is 
never wasted on the worthless: in truth, it is the value of 
the historical blade which calls for the ornamental scabbard. 
Imagination seldom takes liberties with reality where reality 
lias not trifled with pi-obability : an angel levels a blow at 
Deity — we have Paradise Lost ; oriental reality exceeds occi- 
dental pobability — we have Lalla Eookh. Thus, fiincy is 
never over-gallant, but when fact is coquettish and provoking. 
The tendency of the human mind, is not to create a positive, 
but to deduce a comparative and a superlative; we are not prone 
to regard as great what was never great, but to make the abso- 
sutely great greater, and the greater greatest. A great man i.s 
greater when he stands on the shoulders of a biographer, but 
he never would have the biographer if lie had not been some 
wa}' great; and what is true of the man is true of the country 
and what is, true of the biographer, is true of the historian. 
There never yet was an a^-ial bubble so fragile, as not to leave 



I So] 

on tlic finger that broke it, the Rubstiintial soap and water 
evidence of some iact. He wlio has seen what you liave ]iot 
seen, will tell you it beats ail you ever saw. Historians are 
like travelers, they love to magnify; not so much out of dis- 
regard for truth as to eniianee the value of what they have to 
conuiiunieate. This was more the fashion Ibrmerly than now, 
for then the world was j'oung, and men without steam, mova- 
ble types, powder, and eoj^per wire, were whiskered children 
who opened their eyes and clapped their hands at little magni- 
tudes. This is human nature, if we know any thing about it, 
and human nature is a good telescope for examining objects so 
distant as that before us. 

There is much in Cesar's account of Gaul, in the life of 
Agricula by Tacitus, and in the Geogi-aphy of Ptolem}', fo 
illustrate our native annals; while the existing monuments, 
the cairns and pillar stones and cromlechs and sepulchral 
vaults, and the stately round towei'S, and the innumerable 
archaeological fossils, in gold and silver, and cojjper and iron, 
with many other bequests of a defunct civilization, which our 
bogs and mounds have yielded, and our museums preserve "in 
larger quantities, it is admitted, than in England or any other 
countr}' of Euroi)e," have never been overlooked b}- the earn- 
est scrutinizers of our aboriginal or mediieval history. As 
thus tested, there are many important conclusions respecting 
society in this island anterior to its rece])tion of Christianity, 
which pass confessed out of everN' controversy on this dark 
and disputed period. It is confessed, that in the second cen- 
tury of our era, the ports of this island were better known to 
foreigners than those of Britain. It is allowed, on all liands, 
that the Romans never conquered this country as they did 
Britain and the west of Europe. It is not denied, that long 
before this, it was a country of commercial importance, fre- 
quented by the most distant traders, intimately known to those 
pioneers of commerce, the Phoenicians, and thus in communica- 
tion with the scat and center of the then civilization. iS'o one 
questions the form of religion or worship in Avhich the abo- 
riginal Celts of this island gave expression to their simple ideal 
of Deity. It is not disputed that the name of this form of 
worship was Druidisin. No one denies that it was dee])!}' 
rooted in the convictions aud veneration of the people, and 



[80] 

that the country was one of the L';reatest strongholds, of the 
system. All allow, that according to this system, fire and 
water, the oak and the mistletoe, were objects of veneration, 
that its votaries worshipped in the open air, in groves of oak, 
with no other roof than the outspread arms and shady foliage 
of their favorite tree and the blue ceiling of the skies, through 
which they behold face to face, the great object of their adora- 
tion, the Sun. 

There is scarcely a large island of extent in the world, the 
history of whose earliest recorded colonization does not sur- 
prise us with the report of its previous occupation. Before 
the spread of geographical knowledge, since the discovery of 
printing, the improvement of navigation, and the scientific 
construction of maps, the discovery of a new country, hund- 
reds of miles distant from the known world, already pre-occu- 
pied by human beings, was well calculated to astonish even 
the enlightened. But who that knows, that the tide comes and 
goes twice a day, scouring millions of shores, running into the 
mouths of rivers, and up for miles into the middle of countries, 
<lepositing in them, or taking away therefrom whatever, by 
accident or design, is committed to that unbridled vehicle; 
who that has spent one month upon the sea coast in any part 
of the worhl, and observed the universal proiieness to fishing 
and yachting, and the strong temptation which there exists to 
take a jaunt which costs nothing to feed the horses; who that 
has traveled or read travels, and knows tiiat this is true of 
savage as well as of civilized seaboard nations ; who that has 
ever unfolded before him any map whatever of the world, and 
observed the very narrow channels which scarcely servo to 
separate tlie largest continents, and how the majorit}^ of islands 
lead to one another, like stepping stones crossing a river: 
who, I repeat, has submitted these facts to his serious reflec- 
tion, and then feels surprised at the ante-historical dil^'usion of 
his spe'-ies? Seeing therefore that ever}' account of a syste- 
matized colonization of this island, admits its previous occupa- 
tion, those writei-s who, like Sir William Betham, contend 
that the Woody Island of the west, must have received its first 
human occupants from the jidjacent coasts, some of which are 
within the ej-e's reach of ours, stand upon a pedestal of the 
strongest probability. Surely, there is nothing in this hj'pothe- 



eis to necessitate the rejection by these writers of an organized 
colonization, or invasion from a more distant conntr}' in sub- 
Beqiient times; and, on the other hand, nothing in the fact or 
supposition of such distant colonization to necessitate the 
rejection by Irisli writers of an anterior immigration, in the 
natural way, be it individual or collective, by the force of the 
population current from the east, by the accidents of nature, 
or the spirit of adventure. By this h.st description of migra- 
tion must we account for the existence of that race which 
Columbus found in America, as well as for the discovery of 
America itself; by the former, we explain its in^mediate in- 
crease of population, its industrial activity, its commerce, its 
political importance, tlie colonization of the South and the 
West, from the North and the East, at the present hour, and 
all the other migration phenomena of our own times. With- 
out a similar explanation, it would be difficult to account for 
the very early importance commercially and politioall}' of this 
countr}', the most westerly island of extent, belonging to the 
then known world. 

Be this as it may, it is unanimously admitted that the 
country had been colonized at ditierent times, long before the 
Christian Era. Africa, Scandinavia, German}', Spain, and 
Britain, have been identified, with more or less positivcness, 
as the respective fotintains of these several streams of popula- 
tion. Never minding the controverted points of the different 
theories on this head, this much is allowed by all — that the 
adventurous and civilizing Phoenicians were among the first 
visitants to our shores. That they held a continued communi- 
cation with the island for a long time, on terms of exchange, 
]irechides controversy. And this other fact which seems to 
explain the last, is indubitable — the ores of the country aboun- 
ded with the precious metals, gold was plenty, silver abundant, 
copper proluse. Till this da}- silver bullion and rich copper 
ore are prominent articles of Irish export; and, within the 
memory of living men, virgin gold, eighteen carets fine, have 
been got in the hills Wicklow, by the peasantry in considera- 
ble nuggets, to the value of many thousands of ])ounds. Pearls 
abounded in our waters, and precious stones must have been 
plent}', when they are still found in the sands of our shores 
and prized by the aristocracy. Not long ago, a precious stone 



[88] 

found in the sands of Arklow, b}- a peasant, for which he 
received onl}'- a few pounds, after exchangini/; several hands, 
bringini^ its new owner at each exchange, a still higher price, 
was sold at last tor four thousand pounds sterling, ($^20,000.) 
Add to this the peculiar fertility of the soil, which caused Bede 
to upply to it the character of the promised land — Diveslactis ac 
meUis Insula — "a land rich in milk and hone}";'' and, even 
Cambrensis, still later, writes, Fmgibus arva, pecora] monies^ 
nemerosa feres abundant — "the fields abound in fruits, the hills 
in,cattle, and f/he woods in wild beasts." These lacts may help 
to explain that important admission of Tacitus, that the ports 
of Ireland were better known in his time, than those of 
Britain. And the minute knowledge of the island, its towns 
and harbors and headdands and rivei's and people, which, in 
the second century, Ptolemy, the Geographer, displays, bears 
out the evidence of the Eoman historian. 

Of all the repoi'ted invasions or migrations to which we 
have referred that, said to have proceeded from Spain, occu- 
pies the first place in point of importance, if not in point of 
time. Studiously avoiding disputed matter, we can not side 
with those who, in order to make out for their country a case 
of the highest antiquity, never stop till they go back to Noah 
or one of his sons, and even then profess to be minute and 
positive. Nor can we sympathise with that other class of wri- 
ters who reject, in toto, a tradition which can be shown to be 
lield by the entire people from whatever time they choose to 
date our authentic history. Do they allow that date to be no 
further back than Elizabeth or the last of the Ilenrys, they 
instantly find their accepted history recording the claims of 
Irish chieftains in tlie North and the South to the vSpanish na- 
tion, on the ground of a common origin, for hel]) against the 
fire-and-sword imposers of the new tyranny. Do they allow 
that date to extend back to the Invasion, the}' find one of the 
invaders himself, the historian (,'ambrensis, speaking of this 
same Spanish origin as a tradition then. Will they trust far- 
ther back, they meet the younger Sedulius, who flourished in 
the eighth century, writing a whole treatise upon this same 
topic. This treatise was di>covered not ver}' long ago b}' Sir 
John O'Higgins, physician to Philip the Fifth of S])ain, in a 
monastery in Cialicia. Even so early as the third century we 



[89] 

are told, tliat the king: of Munstcr having been expelled his 
territory by the monarch Conn, surnanied " Of the Hundred 
Battles," fled to Spain where he obtained the king's daughter 
in marriage, and was supplied with reinforcements sufiicient 
to recover his patrimony. AVhatever amount of credence, 
therefore, is due to the details of the Milesian colonization, no- 
body denies tiiat the tradition is deep-rooted, and so old as to 
constitute a species of antiquity in itself. 

As to the ancient jjolity of this island it is an important 
admission, on all hands, that here as well as elsewhere, Chris- 
tianity though completely demolishing the previously existing 
religious system, produced no convulsion in the civil govern- 
ment. This being so, such as that constitution was at, and 
subsequent to, the time of St. Patrick, veiy much the same 
it must have been for centuries previous. The period., therefore, 
which comes under the cognizance of admittedly authentic history 
may on this point at least, reflect a sufficiently clear tn-ilight, so to 
speak, upon that which, in point of time was, immediately behind it. 



CHAPTER XLV. — MEDIAEVAL PERIOD. 

What limits do you place to the next division of Irish his- 
tory? 

It is convenient to date it from the arrival of St. Patrick to 
that of Henry II ; that is from 432 to 1172. 

Is there no doubt respecting the credibility of this section of 
your annals? 

It is as well authenticated as any corresponding section of 
universal histor}', and all historians, foreign as well as native, 
accept it as such with one singular excei:)tion. 

What exception is that? 

Towards the close of the last century, an Irish antiquarian 
named Ledwidge astonished historians and the public by deny- 
ing the existence of St. Patrick ! 

Must not somebody have brought the gospel to Ireland, and 
why, then, did Ledwidge quarrel about the name? 

It was not the name but the individual, as portrayed b)^ his 
biographers, Probus, Jocelin and others, whose over-credulous 
narratives are to be seen in Colgan's Tripartite, in Keating 



[90] 

and other compilations of that extravagant class. Those wri- 
ters so often suspend the laws of nature in accounting for the 
miraculous success of this great apostle of the west, that Lcd- 
widge, without the discrimination and learning of Usher, or 
the iudustr}' and patience of Ware, his countiymen and core- 
ligionists, threw the historical chaff and grain overboard 
together. 

Has this singular writer supported his vicwtB by an}^ argu- 
ments ? 

He has, he was a learned man and a principal writer in the 
CoUeicfanea de Rebus Hibernicis, but exceedingly sceptic and far- 
fetched, the very antithesis of Jeoffrey Keating and John Col- 
g:in , but all those learned men were long dead, and it re- 
mained for Doctor Lanigan to meet Ledwidgc and write over 
again the mediaeval history of Ireland. 

Who was Doctor Lanigan ? 

Perhaps the shrewdest historical critic that Ireland has pro- 
duced, not excepting Usher. He has dealt ver}- severely with 
all those writers, as if he had made up his mind to bury each 
one of them in his own learned rubbish. Protestant as well 
as Catholic historians look on Laniijan's ar^jumcnt on this 
point as conclusive. 

I am now prepared for the historical narrative respecting 
this period. 

It must be brief and in general terms. It is generallj' al- 
lowed that St. Patrick was not an Irishman ; that Patrick was 
not his original name, and that his first landing in the island 
Avas as a slave. It is also undisputed, that he was not the first 
])reacher of the gospel in that country, and that some native 
Christians were there at his arrival. Kieran, Ailbe, Declan, 
and I bar were Christian missionaries, and Palladius who imme- 
diately preceded St. Patrick, was dead before the latter arrived 
in his apostolic character. His family was respectable and he 
was educated by St. Martin of Tours, (France), who was his 
maternal uncle. Po])e Celestine the First was in the chair of 
Peter ; and as Peter himself was so named for distinction -sake 
and significance, so Celestine changed the young apostle's 
name from " Succath " to "Patricias," the former meaning 
" warlike " and the latter " patrician " or father. With a posse 
cornmitatUH of learned and pious men, the intrepid Patricius 



L91] 

proceeded to the " Land of the West," which lie invaded in a 
ver}"- different style from that in which Nial and Dathy had in- 
vaded his country a few years before, and in whicli this very 
Patricius liad been taken either as a spoil or a hostage. 

Who were Nial and Dathy? 

The two last pagan monarchs of Scotia Major which was then 
the Latin name of Ireland. Dathy, the last of all, carried his 
arms as far as the Alps where, wc are told, he was killed by a 
fork of lightning. And long before tliis we have the authority 
of Tacitus, that the Irish monarch, Crimthan, brought Hiber- 
nian forces into Britain, to help that country in repulsing the 
lloman general, Agricola. 

What was the immediate result of St. Patrick's mission ? 

Wonderful, miraculous success. Had Ledwidgo lived to wit- 
ness the iirst six years of Father Mathew's ovation, from '42 to 
'46 inclusive, it might have opened his eye to the possibility of 
sudden moral revolutions among millions. From the year 432, 
when St. Patrick landed on the east coast, to the 3'ear 795, 
when the Danes first appeared in the same quarter, the coun- 
try had attracted the notice and admiration of the known 
world, by the number of its schools and monasteries, and the 
shoals of missionaries they sent forth over the west, center 
and south of Europe, and even into Asia. Were I to use the 
language of Nennius, Bede, Campden, Mosheim, Muratori, 
Canisius, the Bollandists, Allemont, and man}^ others of the 
first historical celebrity, all foreignei's speaking on this subject, 
it would be regarded as the language of one who loved to 
praise his country even at the expense of truth, a reputation, I 
hope, I shall never aspire to. " School of the west," " mother 
of the modern theology," " Island of Saints," are the designa- 
tions which all employ speaking of Ireland during these four 
centuries. 

How long'did the Danes continue to harrass the country? 

Till the 3'ear 1014. The interval of two hundred years wit- 
nessed the decay of religion, the burning of monasteries, and 
colleges, and churches, wholesale plunder, massacre, desecra- 
tion and sacrilege. Herick of Auxerre, a French writer, has 
these words — "Almost all Ireland, with avast train of phi- 
losophers, removed to France in the 9th century, driven away 
(no doubt) by the cruelties and devastations of the Danes." 



[92] 

The Banes, then, as well as the English, beat ye upon j'our 
own soil ? 

This is the fortune of war everjwhcre. About this very 
time, England was beaten upon her own soil b}^ those very 
Danes and by William of Normand}'. The Danes at this po 
riod were the most formidable power in Europe, cai'rj-ing fire 
and sword over all the west of the continent. It is computed 
that over forty thousand English were massacred by the Danes 
at one sweep. But nowhere did they receive juore magiiificent 
thrashings or a more complete final overthrow than in Ire- 
land. 

What happened in 1014? 

The decisive Battle of Clondarf, where all the collected 
power of Denmark was crushed. 

Who commanded the Irish, and how long did the contest 
last? 

It was a regular pitched battle and lasted nine hours. The 
day was a remarkable one, being Good Friday, which foil in 
that j-ear on the 28d of April. The cneni}' disputed, as the 
Danes alwaj's disputed, every inch of ground with the great- 
est obstinacy, till 5 o'clock in the evening, when the}' broke 
and were driven into Dublin Ba}'. Sitrick the Danish King 
and Bricn Boru, ])erhaps the greatest of all the Irish mon- 
archs, were the chief commanders. Boru, at the time, was near 
90 years of age, and died that night by the hand of a strag- 
ling Dane, who was thus revenged ibr the loss of his cause. 

"Remember llie glories of Brieii the brave, 

Tlio' the days of the hero are o'er, 
Tho' lost to Mononia and cold in the grave 

He returns to Kinkora no more; 
The star of the field, which so often had poured 

Its beam on the battle, is set 
But enough of its glory remains on each sword, 

To light us to victory yet!" 



CHAPTER XLVI. — MODERN PERIOD. 

I will now thank you for a glance at the turning points of 
Irisb history, from the landing of the English till the present 
time. 



[93] 

They may be indicated arithmetically thus — 1172, 1540, 
16'41, i688, 1782, 1798, 1800, 1829, 1842, 1848. 

Try and express in one sentence what those dates refer to. 

Eespectively, the Invasion, the lleformation, the " Insurrec- 
tion," the I^evoliition, Legislative Independence, the " Eehel- 
lion," the Union, Emancipation, the Temperance phenomenon, 
and the late Revolt. 

First, as to the Invasion ? 

It happened this way. In the 12th century, and for many 
centuries before, the Irish government was a pentarchy or 
rather a pantarchy. That is, each of the four provinces was a 
kingdom governed by its own sovereign, and these tour sover- 
eigns acknowledge a superior sovereign who was styled "the 
monarch; " Avhieh word is Greek and means "sole-governor," 
as pentarchy in the same language means "government by 
five." But, as there were under these many powerful chief- 
tains, who were recognized as sovereign governors in their 
respective districts, and who were often strong enough to 
dispute the provincial sovereignty by force of arms, all of 
them may be regarded as sharing the government or pant- 
archy. 

What then? 

This — unity in the action of the nation -was seldom at- 
tained, and an invading force was sure to lind native chieftains 
to revenge their private wrongs or losses by Joining the side 
of the stranger. In this way the Danes had been enabled to 
hold their ground in the island for two hundred years ; even 
at the great struggle of Clontarf the king of Leinster sup- 
ported the Danish side ! And it was a king of the same prov- 
ince, by name Dermod M'Murragh, who invited the English. 

Probably to revenge some grievance real or fancied? 

A real grievance but a just one. He was e:spelled his terri- 
tory by the monarch Rotherick O'Connor, and abandoned by 
his OAvn subjects because he wounded a brother prince, O'Eorke 
of Breffne, in the most delicate part — his honor, by taking 
away his wife Dervorgilla. He then fled to England for suc- 
cor, which he obtained and with which ho succeeded in hold- 
ing his position in Leinster till the arrival of Strongbow and 
Henry II in a couple of j'ears after. Though the first English 
reinforcements landed in 11G9, and Strongbow's trooj^ the year 



[94] 

after, yet it is usual to dale the English connexion from 1172, 
when Henry himself was in Ireland. 

Now, as to the Eeformation and the interval? 

For about four hundred years the guerilla struggle between 
the Irish and the English continued .with various success, the 
"Pale" contracting and expanding and contracting again, 
sometimes extending from the mouth of theBann to the mouth 
liarrow and near halfway inland, to be soon hemmed in within 
the limits of Louth, Meath and Dublin. 

What do you mean by the Pale? 

The English province in Ireland, as that province wished to 
be designated. 

What effect had the introduction^of the Reformation on the 
civil affairs of the two parties? 

It widened the breach more and more. The pi'evious con- 
tentions between the Pale and the nation were trifles, compared 
with the hand and throat encounters which took place now. 
Before, the English and the Irish were of one: creed, and the 
hierarchy which both recognized and respected was a link of 
union by means of which was forged another, the link of mar- 
riage. Thus, many a bloody battle was prevented, and many 
which took jDlace presented this curious spectacle — Irish chiefs 
assisting the English on one side, and English lords raising 
the standard of the Irish on the other! Indeed some of the 
English nobles (if those can be regarded as^English who were 
natives of Ireland,) in particular the princely house of Fitz- 
gerald, were said to have been Hihernis ipsis Hiberniores, "more 
Irish than the Irish themselves." Members of this family 
•wei'» the leaders of three noted revolts — that of Silken Thomas 
against Henry VIII, that of Desmond against .Elizabeth, and 
that of Lord Edward against Geoi-ge III. 

What was the character of the Insurrection, in 1641 ? 

It was a religious war, the climax of all the fighting that 
preceded it in the country, as ^thousands were massacred on 
both sides in that year. A hundred years had elapsed since 
the first introduction of the new religion into Ireland, by Arch- 
bishop Brown of Dublin, who was an Englishman by birth and 
education. A few English bishops and priests fell in with it, but 
the hierarchy as a body opposed it, and the primate of Armagh 
excommunicated the primate of Dublin. One step led to an- 



[95] 

other during the reigns of Henry, Edward, Elizabeth, James 
the First and Charles the First, each one leaning more heavily 
upon the neck of religious liberty. Six counties in Ulster had 
been confiscated by James, because the Catholics of that prov- 
ince flew to arms and gained several battles over the English 
forces who went to drive the new creed down their throats. 
But now it was not Ulster alone but all Catholic Ireland which 
rose up and openly defied the whole power of England. Kil- 
kenny was the headquarters, and hence the new organization 
was named "The Confederation of Kilkenny." A parliament, 
an executive, a mint, a formidable arm}' conducted by noble 
and able generals, were soon established ; diplomatists repre- 
sented the Confederation at foreign courts, and France, Spain 
and Italy had representatives at the Confederation. For six 
or seven j'ears the Confederation held this sovereign attitude, 
and Charles I commissioned his viceroy to grant the Catholics 
their own terms, which were nothing more than leave to Avor- 
ship God in the manner they deemed most acceptable to Him. 
These commissions were not carried out, and hostilities com- 
menced. Inchiquin opposed the Catholics in Munster and 
Munroo was sent against Owen Roe O'Neill in Ulster. But 
Lord Castlehaven pursued Inchiquin with success, and Owen 
Eoe completely broke 3Iunroe at Benburb, the most signal 
victor}' in Ireland since the overthrow of Bagnall, Elizabeth's 
General, by Hugh O'Neill at the Yellow Ford. 

The successes, then, Avere all at one side? 

They were not. Their forces going to'.besiege Dublin Avere 
repulsed Avith great loss at Finglas, near the metropolis; and 
after the death of Oavcu Roe (the ablest commander in the 
kingdom,) and the murder of the king, Cronnvell and Ireton 
came over and swept the east and south Avith an iron tempest, 
the former committing Avholesale slaughter at Drogheda and 
Werford, sparing neither sex nor age, and the latter at Cashel, 
but both Avere manfully resisted at Kilkenny, Clonmel and 
Limerick. The confederates, hoAvever, obtained terms by the 
treaty of 1648, Avhich after the death of CromAvell Charles II 
respected, at\d the Penal LaAvs enacted and enforced during the 
preceding reigns were suspended Avithout having been repealed. 



[90] 

CHAPTER XLVII — MODERN PERIOD (continued). 

Wc come now to the Revolution of 1688, nnd I should like 
to know in what respect it differed from that just described, 
and which was so near it in point of time? 

Both were alike in this respect — as being religious struggles; 
but the}^ had very distinct political complexions. The latter 
was essentially an English quarrel which, by the force of cir- 
cumstances, extended to Ireland, where it was settled forever 
on the banks of the Boj'ne. Tlie former, as for as the Confed- 
eration was concerned, was exclusively Irish in its origin, ca- 
reer and issue. 

Proceed. 

James the Second succeeded Charles the Second on the 
throne of England, and, like Mary, was a Catholic ; but, unlike 
Mar}', he was not permitted to die a sovereign. In Mar3''s 
time the new religion was an infant which was not able to 
scrape its Catholic step-mother; but now it was a 3'oung giant 
that would not brook a step-father. In a word, James had to 
fly and the Prince of Orange, his son-in-law and a Protestant, 
was proclaimed king by the general voice of the English peo- 
ple. But the general voice of the Irish people was for James, 
who set up a rival court in Dublin where he was proclaimed 
king of Ireland. Thus for the first* time, since Eotherick 
O'Connor, England and Ireland had two kings. But this state 
of things did not last long. William of Orange was a brave 
man, while James II was pusilanimous, the former had a big 
arni}^, the latter a small one. They met on the Boyne near 
Drogheda July 1st, 1690, and James was beaten. 

What then became of him ? 

He deserted his cause and his friends by flj'ing to France, 
while William followed up his first succes by going after the 
Irish army to the Shannon, on whose banks, at Athlone, 
Aughrim, and Limerick, other battles were tbught with the 
utmost braver}^ on both sides. For two weeks, immediately 
after the Boyne, William kept hammering and charging at 
Limerick with heavy artillery and the flower of his army; but 
every charge was repulsed with disaster, and he had to give it 

* We ovei-look the crowning of Edward Bruce at Dundalk in the time of 
Edward II. 



[97] 

up as a bad job. A few nionths of peace followed. The next 
3'ear William's army besieged Limerick a second time, but 
with little better success, though the battle of Auglirim. which 
was very near having proved disastrous to William, had 
broken the backbone of the Irish army just before. At last, 
after a siege of five weeks the gari-ison obtained all that the 
Irish ever fought foi- — religious liberty and the enjoyment of 
their properties — and not only for themselves but for the 
whole nation. 

What then became of the Irish army? 

The}^ had a choice to give uji their arms and remain subjects 
of William or keep them and leave the country. They chose 
the latter almost to a man. Seventy ships were got read}- by 
England to take them to France, and the treaty of Limerick 
stipulated that "sucti ])art of those garrisons as design to go 
beyond the seas shall march out with arms, baggage, drums 
beating, ball in mouth, match lighted at both ends, and colors 
flying." In this honorable way twent}' thousand brave men 
left their country and kindred forever. 

Had these military exiles ever after an opportunity of cross- 
ing arms with the British soldiery? 

Yes, in several engagenaents during the continental wars 
which distracted the first half of the 18th century. They 
gained the great battle of Fontenoy for France, in 1745, which 
was regarded in England as a heavy blow, and is said to have 
made George II imprecate — "Cursed be the laws Avhich have 
deprived me of such subjects ! " 

Come now to 1782 — was this another bloody struggle? 

It was not. It was one of the completest moral triumphs 
which one nation ever obtained over another. The solemn 
treaty of Limerick had been soon broken, the woolen manu- 
facture was dying out since William })Iedged himself that ho 
would do all in his bower " to discourage the woolen manufac- 
ture in Ireland ! " Irish merchants were forbidden to enter any 
market but that of Great Britain, and the acts of the Irish 
Parliament could be vetoed by that of England and even b}' 
the English Privy Council, Such was the state of the law in 
Ireland, which affected the Protestants as well as the Catho- 
lics, when similar tyranny at this side of the Atlantic com- 
pelled the Protestants of New England to fl}' to arms. Eng- 
12 



[98] 

land was in a difficulty and was not able to protect Ireland in 
ease of Invasion. This furnished a good pretext for the icvy- 
ing of the native forces named the " Irish Volunteers." They 
were Protestants, and England saw no danger in allowing arms 
to them. But she was greatl}' disappointed ! 

I thought you said that this was a moral not a military 
struggle ? 

Not one drop of blood was shed ; and yet the A^olunteers 
with arms in their hands, firmness in their hearts, and the elo- 
quence of Grattan on their lips, obtained all they demanded! 

What was that, pray ? 

The repeal of the commercial restrictions, the freedom of 
the seas, the appellant finalty of the Irish House of Lords, as 
respected the English House of Lords, tlie independence of 
the Irish House of Commons as respected the English Privy 
Council, and the unconditional abandonment b}' England "for 
ever," of all chiim to make laws for Ireland. In a word, a 
complete separation of the two kingdoms, as far as that was 
possible, while the two kingdoms acknowledged the one King. 

And did the English Parliament consent to pass such a law 
as that, after all the blood that had been shed to hold the 
country? 

It did. The Act of Irish Legislative Independence, passed the 
two Houses of Parliament in Ireland, the two Houses of Parlia- 
ment in England, and got the royal assent of George III, in 1782. 

M}' curiosity is excited to know the result of all this? 

The result was — unparalleled prosjaerity for eighteen years. 

Well, what happened then? 

The Act of Union, which abrogated the new state of things, 
overhauled all that had been done in '82, and made one "Uni- 
ted Kingdom " of the three Kingdoms, by destroying the Irish 
Parliament! 

And did the Irish Parliament and people consent to this? 

The Parliament did, but the people did not; for the great 
majority of the latter having been Catholics, had no represen- 
tation in that Parliament. JSTor must I be understood as in- 
sinuating, that the Protestant population of the country con- 
sented to national suicide, for it was they, and not the Catho- 
lics, who had obtained that national independence now sought 
to be destroyed for ever. 



[99] 

How, then, was the Act of Union passed? 

The Rebellion of 1798 was the pretext, money was the 
means, and the better security of the Empire the ostensible 
object. Catholics were still a proscribed class, though a few 
links of their chains were broken by the Irish Parliament in 
1793. They were still excluded from the Leijislature, and were 
consequently taxed without representation. The Irish Viceroy 
whose power is kingly, and influence over the fashionable cir- 
cles of the country immense, has been always selected at the 
other side of the Irish sea, and imposed on the people, at this, 
without consulting them. About the time under consideration, 
this prerogative was exercised to the decided displeasure of all 
classes in Ireland. Some goading disappointments, legislative 
and administrative, were also pinching the people at the same 
time, and the influence of the recent French Revolution, dis- 
turbed all Europe as well as Ireland. The recollection of '82, 
also went to show, that the emphatic points of a petition sound 
better, when the barrel of a musket is behind them. Hence 
the "United Irishmen," who were to '98 what the Volunteers 
had been to '82. And it has been gravely asserted, how truly 
I can not say, that the British Government connived at tho 
incipient movement for the purpose of having a pretext for 
recovering what was Avrung from them in a moment of embar- 
rassment, some 3'ears before. 

Did any peculiar feature distinguish this revolt from those 
which preceded it? 

It was not a religious war, like those just referred to; and 
it was not so general as either of the two last. AVexfjrd and 
Down were the foci of its radiations ; and Vinegar Hill, in the 
former county, the Bunker Hill of the struggle. Wolf Tone, 
Fitzgerald, and O'Connor, were the leading spirits, and Catho- 
lics, Presb3"tei"ian9, and Episcopalians swelled the ranks. 

What was the success of this movement? 

It was put down, but not till the insurgents of Wexford had 
greatl}' alarmed the government by several local victories over 
the royal troops. The leaders had to fly, Magna Charta wa» 
suspended. Martial Law proclaimed ; many were hanged, some 
shot, more banished. German mercenary troops rode rough 
shod over the people, and before the country had time to stand 
up, the Union Bill was forged ! 



[100 ] 



What took place in 1829 ? 

Tlie repeal of the penal code a^-ainst Irish Catholics, called 
"■ Catholic Emancipation," — another bloodless victory, O'Con- 
nell being: the Grattan of the movement ; hence his title of 
"Liberator." Having thus blotted from the statute book, 
nearly all the acts written in red ink, against conscience, since 
Henry the Eighth, O'Conncll hoped he could do the same with 
the act of Union. Till the Union Ireland had always a Par- 
liament. And however hampered it was at times by the Eng- 
lish Parliament and Privy Council, yet the latter had always 
to obtain the consent of the former before any bill became law 
in Ireland. By the Act of Union, this was no longer the case; 
for it transferred the legislative power to the British Parlia- 
ment, sitting in London, over three hundred miles awa}' from 
Ireland. In which Parliament the Irish representation was 
not, and is not a fiflh of the whole. Thus the interests of the 
island were thrown into the hands of English, Scotch, and 
AYelsh representatives, who are not supposed to know cither 
the country or the people, and who arc pledged to their own 
constituents, to consult their interests before those of any 
others. O'Connell, therefore, directed the battery of his formi- 
dable eloquence at the Act of Union, and so roused and ar- 
rayed, and marshaled the millions that he drew upon him and 
tliem in '43 and '44, the notice of the civilized Avorld. The Gov- 
ernment became alarmed, and " began to put their house in or- 
der,'' by fortifying their military posts, building barricades, 
boi'ing loop-holes, and storing barracks with munitions of war. 
When thus secure, O'Connell and his prominent assistants were 
arrested, tried, convicted, and sent to jail! 
How did the millions bear this ? 

With boiling but suppressed indignation, and no power on 
earth could have prevented the bloodiest of civil convulsions 
but O'Conncll himself, whose motto was " who commits a crime 
gives strength to the enemy." 

AV'as not Father Mathew's' moral revolution at the same 
time? 

It was. It began to attract notice in '41 ; and O'Connell, 
himself, went on his knees and took the total abstinence pledge 
from the greatest moral reformer of modern times. The two 
movements though quite distinct, and apart had a bearing on 



[1011 

encli other and constituted a social phenomenon of the suhli- 
mest character. 

What took place in '48? 

Another French Revolution, which agitated all the continent 
and precipitated the " Young Ireland " movement — a movement 
very similai- to that of '98. Seeing that " moral force " agita- 
tion was not realizing the promises of O'Conncll, and tliat the 
Government allowed famine and pestilence to sweep off the 
people in '46 and '47, by thousands, a Confederation of pa- 
triots advocated a resort to arms, for which, they risked 
family, property, liberty and life. It is not necessary to say 
more on events so recent. 

Such is a skeleton map of Irish history, as I understand it. 



' ]\r U X S T E R . 

CHAPTER XLTIII. — EXTENT, rOPULATTON, EDUCATION, ETC. 

I will now thank j'ou to dwell a Avhilo in each of the four 
provinces, that, b}^ a closer ac([uaintuuco with the parts, we 
ma}' have a completer knowledge of the whole? 

Beit so; and as Munstcr is not only the largest of those 
provinces but was, previous to the English connexion, the most 
poAvcrful, let us take it first, 

What, then, is the situation and extent of Munster? 

Being the southern quarter, it has advantages in point of 
climate and vegetation, over the other provinces. I have 
alrcad}" given (page 60) its first parallel of latitude, and its last 
extends eleven miles bej^ond the 53°. But its longest straight 
line is from Waterford Ilaveu to the Dingle coast, something- 
over 140 miles. 

How many acres constitute this territory? 

Over six millions ; j)^'^*-''''^^' 6,064,570, covering 9,476 square 
miles. 

Is not this province as large as some independent countries? 

Connecticut is not half as large as Munstcr. It exceeds 
Massachusetts, 'Now Jersey, New Hampshire, or Maryland. 
Yet every one of these is a sovereign state. In Europe there, aip 
over a dozen independent territories, no one of which can 
approach Munstcr in extent. Overlooking the little Republics 



[102] 

of San Marino, Andoi*a, Lucca, and the Ionian Islands, each of 
which is independent, making its own h\ws, but so small, that 
if all were put together, they would not make a fourth part of 
the Irish province, the electorate of Hesse Cassel or that of 
Mecklcnburgh Schwerin, is not half the size of it. Parma, 
Modcna, Nassau, Brunswick, Saxe Weimer, Saxe Coburg 
Gotha, Hesse Darmstadt, and Oldenburgh, are all indepen- 
dent European States, but altogether not as large as Munster ! 
Munster is seventeen hundi'ed square miles larger than the 
Grand Duchy of Tuscany, and by a still greater ditlerence 
it exceeds the kingdom of Wurtemburgh ! 

How is this province bounded? 

On the south and west by the ocean, on the north by Con- 
Tiaught, and east by Leinster ; the boundary lines being partly 
physical, and partly civil, that is, river and "imaginary." 

What was the population of this province immediately, 
before the late famine? 

In 1841, near two and half millions, about that of Scotland, 
or the state of New York, the most populous of the United 
States. The sexes were thus related : 

Males, 1,186,190 

Females, 1,209,076 

2,306,161 

and the number of ftimilis under half a million, 415,154. Dur- 
ing the ten years from '31 to '41, about eight hundred thou- 
sand children were born in that province. 

AVhat is the state of education in the south of Ireland ? 

The Census of '41 shows that the number of those who 
could then read and write, was less in Munster than in Ulster 
or Leinster; notwithstanding, that the population of the 
southern province was the greatest. Only one individual in 
every four, according to the Munster census, had attained 
that degree of knowledge; but it must not be forgotten, that 
infants and children under the school age are included. And 
if we confine our view to the female side of the question, it is 
still more reproachful, as onl}^ 185,018, out of the above twelve 
hundred thousand, could read and write; in other words, only 
one in every &ix or seven ! 



[103] 

Is female education more forward in that province now? 

It certainly is, as the Irish National School system has since 
spread to a vast extent. This sj'stem was founded in 1831, and 
was, therefore, in its tights when the Census just quoted from, 
was instituted. Before '31 there was no system of national 
education in Ireland. This and the poverty of the working 
classes explain the social phenomenon. In connexion with 
these facts, it is rather noticeable that Munster has far sur- 
passed the other provinces, leaving out the metropolis, in the 
number and status of its historical celebrities. Eobert Boyle 
preceded Newton, by whom alone, in British Biography, he is 
equaled in the department of experimental philosophy. " He 
exceeded Bacon," says Cudworth, "in natural experiments." 
Bo}' le was born and educated in Munster, and, like Lord Koss, 
gave his native spot the glory of his great inquiries into natui'e. 

Into how many counties is this province apportioned? 

Six — Cork, Korrj", Tipperary, Clare, Limerick and Water- 
ford. The city of Cork is the capital of the province. 



CHAPTER XLIX. — CORK. 

Does anything sufficiently particular remain to be seen in 
these counties to repay us for a special visit to each ? 

Certainly. Some of the towns have natural, historical and 
monumental associations which are best understood on the 
spot. The counties are not mere arbitrary subdivisions, 
determined by the broadest river or the highest chain of hills. 
Some of them are socially very distinct, and almost all are 
based upon pre-existent and corresponding apportionments, 
dating far beyond the English connexion. 

Apply those remarks to the county of Cork, for instance. 

If nature alone were to determine the size of this county, it 
is obvious it would not extend beyond the Blackwater. It is 
nearly identical with the ancient Desmond, about the time of 
Henry II, when it was a sovereign state, governed, as it had 
been from time immemorial, by the powerful family of Mac- 
Carthy. King John attempted to bring it within the Pale by 
ranking it as an English shire, in 1210 ; and English writers 
love to style it, on account of its extent, " the Yorkshire of 



[104] 

Ireland." At p:-esent, this covintj is larger than several Cfer- 
man Principalities, than Delaware in these States, and twice 
the extent ol'Ehode Island. 

Name the principal towns in this section of Munster. 

The city of Cork, Youghal, Mallow, Bandon, Kinsalo, and 
Fcrmoy. Besides which there are several good towns : in the 
the north Charleville, Bnttcvant, Doneraile, Newmarket, Ivan- 
turk, Mitchelstown ; in the sonth, Rathcormack, Macroom, 
Diinmanway, Cove, Middleton, Castlcmartj'r, Cloyne, Clona- 
kilt}", Rosscarbiny, Baltimore, Skibbcreen, Bantry, and Castle- 
town, with a great number of villages, some of which rank as 
marlcct and post towns, and are little infbrior to some just 
named; for instance, Ivilworth, Castlctown-Roache, Castle 
Lyons, Liscarrol, Millstreet, Passage, and Blarne}'. 

What place does Cork hold among modern cities? 

A very respectable one; but its situation is low, and the Lee, 
by which the greater part of the city is surrounded, does 
sometimes considerable damage Avhen that river is swollen 
with rains and mountain torrents. In former times an exten- 
sive swamp in this locality obtained for it the name Cork, 
which in the Irish language means " marsli." The city is said 
to have been founded by the Danes in the 0th century, but as 
the see of a bishop it dates two centuries earlier, that is from 
the time of St. Finbar. At present it has all the features of a 
capital : extensive stores and warehouses, spacious streets, pic- 
turesque terraces, shady walks, and some good j)ubiic buildings. 
Its benevolent and educational institutions are little inferior to 
those of Dublin. One of the three colleges which constitute 
the Queen's L^niversity in Ireland is here; the other two being 
in Belfast and Galway. Till recenth^ Cork was perhaps the 
greatest provision outlet in the British Isles, slaughtering and 
exporting annually as many as one hundred thousand head of 
cattle, with a vast number of hogs — another Cincinnati. As a 
manufacturing town it has also fallen off since the Union ; yet 
its foreign and home trade is still veiy extensive, its distilleries 
are celebrated, and as a butter market it is the first in the 
island. 

What IS the present population of Cork? 

Over one hundred thousand, or one-seventh that of the en- 
tire count}', which in 1841 stood at 778,398. On entering Cork 



[1051 

for the first time, the stranger is nt once struck with the pecu- 
liarity of "accent," whicli is so very ditferont from that of the 
adjoining counties. It is a rising inflection of the last word 
or syllable in a sentence, and appears to me both musical and 
significant. Music, jjuinting, literature, and the " professio)is" 
are greatly indebted to this city, whose historic celebrities are 
neither few nor far between, and Avill be amply noticed hereaf- 
ter in this publication, if room permit. 

Which is the second town in this county, in point of import- 
ance? 

Youghal, situated at the mouth of the great Blackwatcr, and 
consequently in a natural position of the first importance. 
The frith of the river is here the natural boundary between 
the counties of Cork and Waterford. The harbor is naturally 
deep and safe, and has been perhaps the greatest corn outlet in 
the south. Previous to the Union, the woolen manufacture 
flourished here, and the plastic clays of the locality have been 
taken advantage of by the erection potteries. 

Any historical associations of interest connected with this 
town ? 

Very many. It has always been an English stronghold, 
since its foundation by a (?olon3^ from Bristol, and consequently 
came in for its share of the civil Avars. In the great Desmond 
rebellion it took the side of the crown, but was finally taken 
and the mayor hanged. Its opposition to Cromwell was also 
owing to its loyalty to the crown ; but he took it as a matter 
of course, and having made it his headquarters for a time, 
embarked here for England. At one time Catholics were in- 
terdicted from buying or selling in the markets of Youghal. 
This town is celebrated as the residence of Sir Walter Ealeigh, 
and as the first place in Ireland wdiere the potato was planted, 
having been introduced by that remarkable traveler. The 
introduction of the cherry and the canary bird from the Cana- 
ry Islands, is also attributed to Raleigh and to Youghal. Eal- 
eigh was not a native of this place, but more than one of the 
celebrated BojMes were, which family purchased his large es- 
tates in this quarter. 

What class of town is Mallow ? 

" The Irish Bath " is situated on the Blackwater, and is an 
inland tow^n of much importance. Its medicinal waters have 



[lOG] 

"been long celebrated as some of the first in the island. It was 
a stronghold of the Desmonds, and suffered much during the 
civil wars of the 17th centur3^ 

Respecting Bandon ? 

Another anti-Irish Irish town. The first of the Boyles, bet- 
ter known as the great Earl of Cork, was said to have amassed 
his vast estates as much by laying out as by bringing in. He 
lavished a princely fortune on buildings, and the town of 
Bandon is one of them. It is therefore a modern place, dating 
in its present state from IGIO. It is situated on a good stream, 
the Bandon river, not flir from its junction with the ocean, and 
near the town is a good chalybeate. Having suffered during 
the Eevolution for its opposition to James II, no Catholic was 
allowed for a long while to live within its walls. 

Where is Kinsale ? 

Not far from the last named, and at the mouth of the same 
river. Kinsale, therefore, is better situated for commerce, and 
having a magnificent harbor, has been often used as a naval 
depot in time of Avar. Hence its many investments by hostile 
fleets; the Spaniards took it, the great Marlborough took it, 
and Cromwell took it. The DeCourcy family, a branch of the 
Ulster DeCourcys of Norman extraction, early settled in this 
district, and has invested its modern history with some bio- 
graphical interest. The head of this family, during the strug- 
gle between James and William, opposed the latter, and some 
time after wore his hat at the royal levee in the presence 
of the king — a liberty which the usurper took as an insult, as 
not conceded even to dukes. Demanding an explanation, his 
Majesty learned that this was an heir-loom privilege, as old as 
his predecessor John, by whom it was granted to the conqueror 
of Ulster, A nod of assent recognized its then exercise, and 
DeCourcy uncovered. 

I see by the maj) I'ermoy, as well as Youghal and Mallow, is 
on the Black water ? 

This, too, is a modern town, founded on the site of an ancient 
village, whose history goes back to the era of Druidism, of 
which some traces are yet to be seen in the locality. The 
name Fermoy (Fear Magh) in the Irish language means "sacred 
plain." 

Of the remaining towns in this county what is worth recalling? 



[107] 

Charlevjllo, (Charles' Town) nnother modern place, dating 
from about the same period as Bandon, and due to a Charles 
Boyle, as the name imports. Being more central than Cork 
or Yonghal, its founder, when President of Munster, made it 
the seat of the Presidency, the better to watch the Earls of 
Desmond, who ruled almost absolute in Kerr}", and often defied 
the sovereign. Buttevant (Bontez en avant—'^ Y)nsh forward,") 
is said to bo so called only since the arrival of the Xorman 
family DeBarry, whose French motto means " push forward," 
and who early encountered the MacCarthys in this quarter, 
where they soon obtained large possessions. It was formerly 
called Kilnemullagh, (Church of Mullagh) which name is re- 
tained in Spenser, whoso castle of Kilcolman and " beautiful 
Mullagh " arc in this locality. The place is poor but venerable, 
with grand ecclesiastical and feudal ruins. 

Macroom is another venerable place, possessing Pagan, 
Christian, Danish, and military reliqucs of deep historical 
interest. Dunmanway is said to be the first place in Munster 
where the linen manufacture flourished, because encouraged by 
the historian Cox, who lived here. Middleton, (Middle Town,) 
Castlemartyr, and Cloyne, (Cluain, "sequestered,") situated 
between Cork and Yonghal, arc quite convenient, jirojccting 
this little promontory with many points of interest. Ross and 
Cloyne are ancient sees now united to that of Cork. Balti- 
more, though now an unimportant j^Iace, has given its name to 
the capital of Maryland, in these States. Skibbereen, Eantry, 
and Castletown, as well as the last named, are all on the south- 
west coast, and places of little business and less commerce. 
Near Castletown w^as the Castle of Dnnboy, which occupies so 
prominent a place in the histor}^ of Munster, as the residence 
of the O'SuUivan Beare, whose resistance to the Eefbrmation 
and the Pale was so obstinate, so romantic, and bo deeply 
tra":ic. 



CHAPTER L. — KERRY. 

Let us now go to Kerr}', for I see by page G3 it is the second 
largest county in Munster. 

And the fifth in Ireland. The name '• Kerry " (in Irish 



[108] 

Ciaruidhe,) means "rocky country on the water;"' and is thus 
most ajipropriatel^y ajDplicd to a territory which has tlie highest 
mountains in the couutr3-, and stretches tiu'thest to the Atlan- 
tic. Former!}", however, this name specially applied to only a 
jiart, now a distinct barony, of this district, just as the present 
name of the northern province was formcrl}^ limited to the 
eastern part of it, now named Down but anciently Ulladh, 
whence " Ulster." 

I see by the map that the boundary lines of Kerry are most- 
ly pointed out by nature ? 

True : mountains and rivers on the south and east separate 
it from Cork and Limerick, the Shannon estuary on the north 
parts it from Clare, and the ocean from America, notwith- 
standing the long arm of the Cable that icas. 

Having got a glance at the physical features of this county 
more than once during these dialogues, I shall now thank you 
for such other flicts as will inform me respecting its history. 

Kerry had the high distinction of having been a county pal- 
atine ; that is, an independent state under the crown. Its 
westerly situation and mountain character imparted to it, in 
the ej'cs of the far-off Pale, a feature of isolation which called 
for a local resident executive Avilli discretionary power. The 
little sovereignt}' was placed under a wing of the house of 
Leinster, as a high mark of the I'oyal esteem, for the noble 
family of Fitzgerald But this wing having felt the mountain 
breeze of the " rocky territory," flapped right in the face of the 
power that placed it there, lor purposes which it would not 
subserve. It opposed the Eeformatiou while a man was left, 
in consequence of which the palatinate of Kerry was blotted 
from the map of Ireland. Ilistor}^ of higher romance and 
deeper interest than that alluded to, it Avould be hard to 
find. 

What ancient Irish families possessed this territory ? 

The MacCarthy's, the O'Donohue's, the O'Connor's, the 
MacGillicuddy's, the O'Connell's, &c., and descendants of those 
are still in j)ossession of large estates in their native Ciaruidhe, 
and a few have their ancient titles recognized, for instance 
"the MacGillicuddy of the Eeeks," "the O'Connor Kerry,'' 
" the O'Donohae of the Glens," and at the monster meeting on 
Tara Hill in 1813, a scolloped cap in the shape of the Irish 



[109] 

crown, was placed upon tlie head of the great leader as "The 
O'Connell." 

What English ftmilios liave taken a foot-hokl in Kerry? 

The Fitzgerald's, the Trant's, the Denny's, the Fitzmaurice's, 
and the Crosby's are the principal. Kerry ranks now as an 
earldom, giying title to the famil}'" of Fitznianrice, which has 
recently declined the offer, to have it elevated to a duchy, du- 
ring the Premiership of Lord Palmerston. 

Is there an3'thing peculiar in the social aspect of Kerr}- at 
the present hour. 

The Irish language is still the medium of expi-ession in four- 
fifths of the count3\ The old folks pra}' in it, the young make 
love and labor in it, urchins play in it, and the priest preaches 
in it. It Avas also the language of the old Earls of Desmond, 
before and after their overthrow, and for which they almost 
i'orgot the Anglo-Saxon. This county has been long distin- 
guished for the cultivation of the Greek and Latin Classics 
even among the peasantry. 

What is the population of this county? 

About a quarter of a million, near all Roman Catholics, from 
Lord Kenmare down to " Paddy Blake." 

Can the towns of Keny be fovorably compared with those 
of Cork, in number or population ? 

Far from it; Tralee, Dingle, Killarney, Listowel, Castle 
Island, and Kenmare, being the only towns deserving the name, 
and a cou]de of these same being little better than villages. Tra- 
lee and Dingle, however, are stirring places, the last being also 
the most Avesterly town in Ireland. Tralee (Tragh-Leigh) on 
the little river Leigh or Lee, is a seaport with a naturally bad 
harbor, being so shallow that a canal had to be run from the 
town to deep water. In the Irish language tragli means strand 
hence Traniore (big strand,) Tralee, (Lee strand.) But the bay 
and harbor of Dingle are s})aciou8 and deep. This name im- 
ports "fortress," and Dingle, as such, sutfered much, with al- 
most every place in Kerr)^ during the civil wars. This whole 
district may be called, on this account, the La Vendee of Ire- 
land, the west of France not having suftered more. 



110] 



CHAPTER LI. — TIPPERARY. 

Of the third largest county in Munster, what remains to be 
said ■? 

This ver}" striking fact should get the first place — inten years, 
from 1841 to 1851, it is shown by the Census returns of both years, 
that more than sixteen thousand " houses,'' that is, cots and cabins 
were demolished in the county of Tipperary alone! One year 
with another, the exact number of hearths quenched, and 
roof-trees pulled down annually in that single county, was 
1,674 ; Avhich, multiplied by ten, give 16,740 for the decade, in 
precise figures, supplied by Government authority itself! 

Am I to understand that this frightful diminution of dwell- 
ings represents a corresponding diminution of the population? 

I will offer no comment upon a fact so plainly expressed and 
of such magnitude. 1 am justified, however, in stating another 
fact from the same authoritj*, which may answer your ques- 
tion — in 1851 the number of human beings in Tipperary was 
less than the number in 1841 by a difl:erence of one hundred 
thousand souls ! 

Can you offer any explanation of a social phenomenon so 
awful? 

It is not peculiar to this county except, perhaps, in a shade of 
degree. The population of all Ireland, locally and aggregatel}', 
diminished during those ten 3-cars, if not in the ratio of Tip- 
perary, as just referred to, at all events, in a very similar wa}', 
and in a sufiicientiy awful degree. The population of Tippe- 
rary was reported, in the first named year, at 435,000, and 
in ten 3'ears after, as less by the one-tenth of a million; which 
shows that one out of every four, with one for every mother s 
soul born in the meantime, in the county, either went down to 
the grave, or went out of the territory! And one-fourth is 
about the ratio of diminution for the whole country in the respect 
under consideration. 

Why, then, select this locality to notice what is not peculiar 
to it? 

Because the demolition of homesteads by landlords, and the 
resentment of such by the i^eople, have characterized this 
county for many years, causing it to be regarded by one class 



[Ill] 

as notoriously turbulent, but by another as famousl}' patri- 
otic. 

Eespecting the history of Tipperaiy ? 

Like Kerry, Tipperary was a county palatine, and tl\ese 
were the only two in the south of Ireland. The latter gave 
title of Duke to the House of Orraond, in which the jurisdic- 
tion of the palitinate was vested, as a return for the long loy- 
alty of the Butler family, between which and the Fitzgeralds 
of Desmond, the most implacable enmity subsisted to the con- 
tinual distraction of the whole province for generations. 

"Was Ormond, then, the former name for this county? 

The ancient Ormond (that is, east Munster,) comprehended 
a part of the present Kilkenny, while a part of the present 
Tipperary would appear to have been included in the ancient 
Thomond or north Munster. The name Ormond is still re- 
tained as that of two baronies in the North Riding of Tipperary. 

This is the first mention I have yet heard of tcri'itorial di- 
visions named "ridings ?" 

When a county is largo it is convenient to split it into two 
or three judicial divisions, for the better administration of the 
law; and these arc called ridings, of which there are two in 
this county, containing 12 baronies, divided into 193 j^arishes. 

What ancient Irish families owned this territory? 

The O'Briens, the Fogarties, the O'Dwyers, the O'Kennedys, 
the MacEgans, the Hefternans, the O'Ryans and the Sulli- 
vans; but these last early migrated to the mountains of Ban- 
try, where they were assigned h}^ the MacCarthy's, the prom- 
ontoiy north of Bantry Bay, and the island of Beare, and 
hei'e they hoped to escape for ever, the civil convulsions which 
drove them from their native plains. 

What English families settled here? 

The Butlers, the Mathews, the Purcels the Pennefathers, 
and many others. The Mathew family has given us the great 
moral reformer of our ";eneration. 



CHAPTER LII. — TOWNS IN TIPPERARY. 

Are there any good towns in the county ? 
Several ; in the South Eiding — Clonmel, Carrick, Tipperary, 
Cashel, Eethard, Cahir, Kilienaule, with the important village 



[112] 

of Golden, and man}^ of less note, in the Xorth — iSJ"ena,a;li, Ros- 
crca, Tcmplemore, Thurlcs, Newport, with Bori-isoleigh and 
other villages. 

Can these places hold a favorable comparison with the chief 
towns alread}' spoken of? 

Yes, with all but one. Clonmel is the most important inland 
town in Ireland, with one or two exccplions — Kilkenny and 
(perhaps) Armagh. The cities of Cork, Limerick, and Water- 
ford, whose iin]3ortance is obviously due to their uiaratime 
position, and splendid harbors, arc the only towns in Munster 
before Clonmel. In an agricultural sense, the fall of some of the 
most productive lands in the south of Ireland, is into this town. 
Like the city of Glou'ster, in England, Clonmel is an inland 
port, the Suir being to the latter what the Severn is to the for- 
mer, admitting boats of considerable burden a long wa}' inland. 

Historically what of it? 

We have already seen its ojijiosition to Cromwell, but it must 
not be omitted, that an O'Neill with Tyrone auxiliaries, was in 
the town upon that occasion. Clonmel is very ancient, and 
has produced some eminent writers. Here Charles Bianconi, 
the celebrated Italian conveyancer, held the reins of his long 
lines of civilizing caravans, before it was known in Ireland 
that a coach could run without something like a horse. 

Is Carrick next to Clonmel? 

It is and it is not: it is in ])oint of neighborhood, but it is 
not in point of importance. Nenagh, in the far north, is next 
to Clonmel in size and business, being the assize town and cajii- 
tal of the North Riding. It is situated on a stream which bor- 
rows its name and falls into Lough Derg. Its position on the 
Shannon, maj' have been the cause of its early occupation by 
the English ; for it has been an English garrison almost since 
their arrival. Jt was burned b}" the incensed natives on the 
26th Dec, 1348,andsoonafter, under the leadership of an O'Brien, 
they overthrew the enemy led on by an Earl of Desmond. 
'• Arra" was the ancient name of this district, which belonged 
to a branch of the O'Brien's called, thence, O'Brien of Arra, 
to distinguish them from the O'Brien's of Thomond and Lum- 
ueach (Limerick.) 

In our sixth dialogue you excited my curiosity respecting 
theEockof Cashel.? 



[1131 

Cashel was the ancient metropolis of Munster, and is still 
its ecclesiasticiil capital in the polity of Catholicisni ; the bish- 
ops of Cork, Limerick and Watcrford, beinc; suffrigans of the 
Arch-bishop of Cashel. The kings of Munster, who were 
prett}' alternately derived from the two principal families, the 
O'Briens of Thomond, aud McCarth3-s of Desmond, were always 
crowned here, and from this ruled the two Munstors, that is, 
Mnmhan |)roper, and Hy Kinsella, now Leinster. It was, there- 
fore, a place of the first political importance in those times, as 
the ruins of the royal capitol still testify. These ruins are on a 
great rock or isolated hill, about a mile in circumference, very 
steep at one side, but sloping at the other, and rising with im- 
posing abruptness out of the leve? plain. They consist of a 
round tower, one of the few still perfect, and one of the high- 
est, a vast cathedral pile, a " ]>agan " temple, some square 
towers and castellated wings, with the coronation stone and 
portal outposts or domestic offices. The tower rises 120 feet 
above the summit of the hill, and is as perfect, to all appearance, 
as in the century it was built, how long before or after the in- 
troduction of Christianity— " that is the question." The Ca- 
thedral aspires to the same eminence but not pre-om\ncuce, as 
its age of some six centuries, is prett}^ generallj' understood. 
But the " pagan " temple, better known as "King Carmac's 
Chapel," is the gi-eat curiosity and the great puzzle. If built 
before St. Patrick, the theory about the era of stone buildings 
in Ireland, is knocked in the head, and we stand amazed at the 
civilization Mduch lias sent this cut-stone challenge down to 
the vauntful nineteenth century — such is its raasonr3% its fig- 
ure sculpture, its chisel tracery, and fretwork. If built during 
the Christian period of our history, the puzzle is worse, as who 
can answer the plain practical question — Cui bono f-^'\ For the 
best description of these grand objects, and the most learned 
inquir}^ into this interesting question, I beg to refer you to 
Doctor Pctrie's great work on Irish Ecclesiastical Architecture. 

What kind of a j^lace is Cashel now? 

A nominal city of seven thousand souls, with some good 
shops, a few^ wealthy men, and the ooly town in the eounty, 
besides Clonmel, enjoying the parlia^neiitaTy franchise. But 

* To •what purpo$o ? 
IB 



[114] 

this privilGg-c is merely a com])limcnt to its antiquity and 
former importance, as several of its neighboring towns exceed it 
in ])opalatiou and wealth. Cashel is now a jioor place. Its 
gently is gone, and even the neighboring ffirmers take their 
produce to Clonmel and Tipperary, a distance of sonic 12 Irish 
miles.-^- It is two miles from the nearest river, wliich is felt as 
a standing calamity. It has, therefore, no mills and no manu- 
factures, exce])t that of tobacco, in which, however, it excels. 

Are there any other ecclesiastical or civil ruins in this county 
worth the traveler's attention? 

Several, but those of Holy Cross are the principal. Holy 
Cross is a village on the Suir between Cashel and Thurles, 
but nearer the latter. There is nothing externally attrac- 
tive about this grand remnant of the past; it is its internal 
beauty which is so admired holding, as it does, the first place 
for sculpture embellishments of any Christian ruin in the 
country. It dates from the 12th century, and is attributed to 
the piety of Donald O'Brien, King of Limerick, in honor of 
the Savior's Cross, a veritable piece of which, is said to have 
been sent to his predc^cessor, by Pope Pascall II, about 1110. 
Emly is still more ancient as a place of piet}'. It is situated 
neiir the borders of the county of Limerick, and is remarkable 
as being one of the xcvy few places in which Christianity was 
taught and practiced in this kingdom, before St. Patrick. St. 
Ailbe founded the see of Emly, which has been long united to 
that of Cashel. The village is now a gloomy collection of poor 
cottages. 

Do the other towns of Tipperary call for our special notice? 

Tipperary, Carrick-on-Suir. Cahir, Thurles and Templemoi-e, 
are thriving places, of considerable business, each about the 
size of Cashel but more stirring. The flrst named has an 
extensive trade in butter; Thurles is the residence of the 
CJatholic ai'ch-bishop of Cashel, and the site of a Catholic 
college, which is an ornament to the town. It is also celebra- 
ted for a great victory over the Danes. Fethard is very ancient 
and still defended by Avails and gates. Killenaule is the small- 
est town of those just named, and romantically situated among 
hills where many an outlaw has found protection. In this neigh- 

* Eleven Irish miles are equal to fourteen English, which is also called 
" statute (act of Parliament) measure." 



[115] 

borhood arc the Tippcraiy collieries ; and in a bog near Callan, 
was found in the last century, a cap or crown of gold, with other 
reliques of intrinsic value materially and historically. Near 
Golden, Father Mathew was born, in the parish of Thomas- 
town and townland of Abbey-Greene, so calle<l from the pro- 
prietor of the soil and to distinguish it from the adjacent town- 
land of Abbej'-Athassil, where other and most extensive eccle- 
siastical ruins are to be seen. The grand Castle-mansion of 
Thomastown, built in the last century by Thomas Mathew, who 
is mentioned in Sheridan's Life of Swift and in Wilson's Won- 
derful Characters, is also here. Eoscrea is another venerable 
spot with a massive round tower and religious ruins. It had 
been once a city Avhose episcopal .jurisdiction was transferred, 
in the 12th centuiy, to the see of Killaloe. 



CHAPTER LIII. — CLARJ:. 

Does not Clare belong to tlie western province by nature? 

So it docs, and Avas anciently a ^Jart of that principality^ but 
has been added to Munster by conquest. It was then called 
" Thomond," which signifies North JMunster. The English 
found it within the boundaries of the soutliern province, and 
left it so. Judicially, however, it is included in the Connaught 
circuit. 

I see by your statistical tables it is nearly half waste. 

The surface of a great part of this count}^ is stony and 
rugged. It has many hills, though of no great height, several 
small lakes, some bogs, and sonac woods. The soil, though 
generally light, is fruitful and in some places deep and rich. 
This county produces the largest and best horses in Ireland. 

Historically ? 

Historically, it has always been the territory of the O'Brien 
family and, in a great measure, is still. The ancient Dalgais, 
of whose military exploits so much is said in the j)re-Anglo 
history of the country, belonged to Thomond. Moore immor- 
talizes them in the melody last quoted from, 

" While the moss of the valley grew red with their blood, 
They stirred not, but conquered and died." 

This county derives its present name from the Gloucester flim- 



[110] 

ily, DcClarc, since the time of Edward I; to which family that 
l")rince, with the usual pretensions to justice, transferred it. 

What other families besides the O'Briens and Clares have 
possessed this territory ? 

Of Celtic blood — MacXamara, MacMahon, O'Laughlin, O'- 
Grady, O'Gorman, O'Quinn, were the principal ; of Norman 
and British — Fitzgerald, Yandeleur, &c. 

Are the towns of Clare as numerous and imj^ortant as those 
of Tipperary ? 

They are not. Ennis, Kilrush and Killaloe are the princi- 
pal ; Ennistymon, Miltown-malbay, Gort, Kilfenora and Cor- 
rofin, the largest villages. 

Is Ennis the shire town ? 

It is, and most favorably situated for trade at the junction of 
the Fergus and the Shannon, which is here some eight or nine 
miles wide. Kilrush is a favorite watering place, and Killaloe 
(Kille da Lua, " Church of Lua,") an ancient bishopric found- 
ed in the 6th century by St. Molua. Kilfenora is another an- 
cient bishopric, united to the last named and to that of Koscrea, 
in Tipperary, under the one miter. Near Killaloe are the 
Shannon Falls and salmon fisheries, and at this picturesque 
spot stood the famous Kinkora, the palace of Boru, and " local 
liabitation " of the O'Briens. The ruins of this celebrated 
mausoleum are still to be seen, and at Ennis, Kilfenora and 
other places in this county, are noble testimonies of Thomond 
piety. 



CHAPTEK LIV. LIMERICK. 

For what is Limerick most remarkable ? 

Naturally, for the depth and richness of its soil — industri- 
ally, for its dairy and butter produce — historically for its Dru- 
idic associations and grey ruins. This county has j^roduced 
many celebrated characters. 

What is the population of this county ? 

About the same as that of Clare or Kerry — near 300,000, 
grouped into forty-seven thousand families, which allows six 
Bouls to eveiy family on an average. 

Eespecting the city of Limerick? 



It is the fourth in Ireland and about the eleventh in the 
three kingdoms, though a hundred years ago it was regarded as 
second to Dublin alone of the Irish cities, and second to no sea- 
port in Europe as a fortress. Like many other places in this 
distracted nation, it consists of an "Irishtown " and an " Eng- 
lishtown," the latter on an island in the Shannon, connected 
with the former by a massive stone bridge. In the last ccn- 
turj^ the woolen, linen, and paper manufactures were exten- 
sively carried on here. It is now celebrated for its tobacco and 
for its lace and gloves, which dispute the foreign market with 
those of Belgium. A lady wanting a pair of Limerick gloves 
enters a shop and is handed a nut which might be cracked be- 
tween the teeth — within are the robes Avhich must cover two 
palms and ten fingers ! 

"When was the see of Limerick founded? 

In the early days of Celtic Christianity by St. Munchcn. 
The crozier of Limerick is now wielded over a great part of 
Kerry. 

Had the Danes possession of this city? 

It was one of their greatest strongholds, and consequently 
received many a hot visit from the surrounding Dalgais. Brien 
Boru is said to have exacted 365 tuns of Avine from the North- 
men of this one city. Perhaps no town in Ireland has been 
so often attacked. In the fifty years ending 1691 it had to 
withstand four heavy sieges ; in the second by Ireton, son-in- 
law of Cromwell, wholesale slaughter was committed, which, 
however, the monster himself did not long survive, having 
died a miserable death with the shrieks of his victims in his 
ears. 

Which are the other towns of this count}'? 

Ivilmallock, Askeaton, Rathkeale, Abbeyfeale and Bruflf, Avith 
the villages of Newcastle, Kilteely, Bruree, Adair, Hospital, 
Oola and Kilmeedy. 

Are these places of any present or historical importance ? 

A few of them are flourishing country towns, and nearly all 
are remarkable for hoary monuments of by-gone glory. Ivil- 
mallock far inland, Askeaton and Eathkeale on the Deal, Adair 
on the Maig, and others are grey with ruins. Kilraallock has 
so many that it is distinguished as " the Irish Balbeck." At 
Adair was a celebrated oak held in great veneration by our 



[118] 

Druidic ancestors, the cuttinc; down of which plunged the 
province into a bloody war. Brureewas the rendezvous of the 
Munstcr bards, whose last session took place in 17G0 ; but the 
Welsh keep up this custom to the present daj'. At Newcastle, 
as also at Cappoquin in AVaterford and on the Blackwater in 
Cork, were branches of the Knights Templars, which fell with 
the parent trunk about the middle of the 14th century, upon 
the suppression of the order by the Council of Vienna. 



CHAPTER LY. — WATERFORD. 

We come now to the last, because the smallest, of the Mun- 
ster counties. 

AVaterford, in proportion to its extent, grows more timber 
than any other county in Ireland, if w^e may judge by the per- 
centage of each county under j^lantation, which in this prov- 
ince is as follows ; 

"Waterford, 5.07 Cork, 2.08 Clare, 1.00 

Tipjjcrar}', 2.24 Limerick, 1.07 Kerry, .98 

Please explain those allusions. 

Every hundred ])arts (call them acres) of AVaterford contain 
over five under plantation, of Tipperaiy not quite two and a 
quarter, of Kerry not all out one. Thus the coarse parts of 
Waterford, of which there are a good man}^, ajipear to be well 
economised. 

Historical!}', what is this county remarkable for? 

In an eminent degree for learning. In modern, as well as in 
ancient times, it has produced very eminent men in the literary 
line. About two hundred years ago it sent out a most extra- 
ordinary character named Greatrex, who did things which 
astonished the three kingdoms, but which can not be entered 
into here, as they come under a distinct department of this 
publication — the biographical. 

In ancient times did this district belong to Desmond, Tho- 
mond, or Ormond ? 

The present county of AVaterford appears to have been en- 
tirely included in the old JMunster Decics, which was not 
bounded on the north by the Suir, and therefore might have 



[110] 

been partly in Ormond, as it was mostly in Desmond. This 
old natno "Decies" is still preserved, like almost all the old ter- 
ritorial denominations, in a local and limited way; it is now 
applied to one of the baronies. 

What class of city is Waterford ? 

One of about thirty thousand people with some mannfae- 
tures, cspeciall}^ i^'^iss, and a largo trade in provisions. It 
ranks next to Limerick in every respect; and before the rise 
of Liverpool and Belfast, Waterford, like Bristol, looked more 
important. Waterford was the principal port of embarkation 
for England and Franco before Liverpool threw Bristol into 
the shade, and that is so lately as within the last thirty years, 
and thus the migration tide has been turned to Dublin. In the 
last century " upwards of seventy sail of shipping " were em- 
ployed in the provision trade of this port with Newfoundland 
alone, the slaughter of hogs having been "three thousand per 
\veek, for many weeks together," and the exportation of butter 
" from sixty to eighty thousand casks per annum." 

How is this city situated? 

On the Suir near its junction with the united Barrow and 
Nore, the three forming an excellent harbor to which a mag- 
nificent quay has greatly added. The name Waterford* may, 
therefore, have a similar derivation to that of Clarisford, (Clare's 
ford) a town in Clare where was the only ford or passage across 
the Shannon, between Thoniond and Ormond, when the De 
Clares usurped that district. Waterford was also called Port 
Largy, (Leargi) literally meaning " seaport." 

Has this city been the scene of any remarkable events ? 

It is said to have been founded by the Danes; at any rate, 
it was a Danish stronghold while the Northmen remained on 
the island and, as such, was several times sacked by the Irish, 
in particular by Brien Boru when king of Cashel. It has 
been an English garrison too. since Strongbow and Henry II 
landed at this spot. By a late act of parliament, the arch- 
diocese of Cashel has been reduced to the level of ordinary 



*0f the thu'ty-two counties only half a dozen have English names — 
"Waterford, Wexford, Longford, Clare, Kings county, and Queens county. 
Those of all the others are Irish and beautifully significant. The prefix 
" London" is not recognized here in the name of Derry. 



[120] 

dioceses, and placed under the crozier of "Waterford in. the Es- 
tablished Church. 

Is Lismore historically remarkable? 

Yerj^much so. In the golden age of Scotia Major, long be- 
fore the English Invasion, there was a famous university here 
to which the English and Saxons flocked, and where, as also 
in Mayo, they Avere fed and educated gratis. This is a well 
attested fact, ficknowledged by English writers, and b}' sucli of 
the foreign alumni themselves as have left their names in his- 
tory, for instance Alfred of England. In more recent times, 
Lismore has given the world Robert Boyle. Sixteen Dalys of 
Thomond are said to have ligured as poets, but the world has 
not pronounced to what degree; while near a dozen of the 
Boyles of Lismore are the property of universal biograiihy. 
Lismore is a bishopric since the seventh centurj', when it was 
founded by St. Carthagh, but it is long united to that of Water- 
ford. Its high prestige was greatly slurred about a century 
and a half ago by its then legal bishop, who was imported from 
the other side of the channel, and disgracec not only our com- 
mon Christianity, but even our common humanity, by crimes 
which can't be named! He was tried and "hanged by the 
neck till dead !" It is a coincidence which I have not j^et seen 
noticed, that the present rule of the celebrated Mount Mellary 
Avhieh is in this neighborhood, forbidding all use of flesh to its 
religious, but giving it plentifulU* to strangers, seems to have 
been also the monastic discipline of St. Cartliagh's more cele- 
brated establishment, in this same quarter, twelve centuries 
ago. 

Are the remaining towns remarkable in any particular? 

Dungarven is the greatest fsh-port in the province, if not in 
the kingdom. Traniore (tragh more — "big strand,") is the 
Brighton of the south. And Cappoquin, at the elbow of the 
Blackwater, is one of the man}" towns in this ]U'ovinco taken 
from the English for the Confederation, by Lord Castlehaven, 
in the great Insurrection of 1645.* 

*Such is a glance at the fine province of Munster, ■which occupies so prom- 
inent a place in tlie whole history of the island. 



[121] 

ULSTER. 

CHAPTER LVI. — PHYSICAL AND SOCIAL PECULIARITIES. 

AVhich is the second-largest province in Ireland? 

Ulster, whoso precise area is 5,475,438 acres, or a little more 
than 8,555 square miles, near a fifth of which (page 62) is oc- 
cupied by mountain wastes, bogs and lakes. This province 
is the northern quarter of the island, and is surrounded by tho 
ocean on all sides, save on the south, where it is bounded by 
Leinster and Connaught. It extends about tliirtj^-five miles 
beyond Leinster to the east and is, consequentlj', the nearest 
part of Ireland to Groat Britain. 

What, then, is the east longitude of Ireland? 

The east longitude of Ulster and the "west longitude of 
Munstcr are those of Ireland; the former is 50' from the 
first meridian passing through Dublin at Trinity College 
Observatory, tho latter 4i° from said meridian. 

What is the most distinctive ph^'sical aspect of this jii'ov- 
ince? 

Entering it from Leinster, you are at once impressed with 
its rolling and hilly character, and proceeding further j'ou 
meet its great lakes and land-locked baj's, namely, Loughs 
Neagh, Erne, Strangford, Foyle, &c. The lakes alone taking 
up 214,950 acres of its surface! 

Has it any social feature equally distinctive ? 

It has — that conferred on it by tho linen industry, which 
is now almost entirely monopolized by this province, though 
at one time Munster was flir before it in this respect. In 
consequence, there is less poverty and the social extremes 
less broad in the north, than in the south, west, or even east 
of the country. Connected Avith this is also another social 
feature — the great number of small farms into w^hich much 
of this province is cut up, many thousands of them not ex- 
ceeding five acres each, while the number having no larger 
holding than fifteen acres and no smaller than one, exceed 
two hundred thousand. Perhaps the explanation is to bo 
found in the fact that, generally speaking, all the small 
farmers are also manufacturers, the spade and the loom being 
in almost every rural cot in whole districts. 
15 



[122] . 

Any otljcr social peculiarity beloiiging to this quarter? 

Yes, Ulster has by far the largest Protestant ])opulation 
of the four provinces, the vast majority of the Irish people 
being Catholics. The professors of the Church of England, 
liowev^er, are in a very small minority in Ulster, perhaps 
more so than in any other section of the country; the Church 
of Rome and the Church of Scotland (Presbyterianism) claim- 
ing, in about equal numbers, live-sixths of all the Ultonians. 
Another feature of Ulster is the Orange organization (so 
called in honor of William TIT, Prince of Orange,) whose 
ostensible object is to maintain church and slate in Ireland, 
but whose practical results have been — the periodical manu- 
facture of broken heads, widows and orphans. The Irish 
Orangeman is the looking-glass of the American Know- 
Kothing. But a social feature of Ulster more agreeable to 
look upon is, that of tenant-right — a right legalized by ven- 
erable custom entitling an ejected tenant to the value of his 
permanent improvements and the sale of his "good-will" to 
his in-coming successor, which the latter i)ays for most freely, 
without any act of legislation to compel him. 

Is not this the custom elswhcre in Ireland? 

It is not. Elsewhere in Ireland the tenant-at-will is turned 
out upon " the wide, wide world" whenever his landlord or 
agent pleases to seize all his improvements, though they 
should include the reclaiming of a bog, the planting of an 
orchard, or the building of a farm-j'ard! Hence, thousands 
of industrious Irish farmers are afraid to spend capital in 
improvements which may be their ruin. 

Is there any thing remarkably bold or peculiar in the his- 
tor}^ of Ulster? 

From the daAvn of Irish history till the middle of tlie 17th 
century Uladh was the kingdom of the Ily Nialls (O'JS'eills) 
the most powerful of all the Celtic families of Scotia. 
That family not only ruled Leath Conn, Avhich included 
Connaught, but gave monarchs to Tara during nearly the 
whole period of the pentarchy, and for five hundred years 
of the English usurpation rendered that usurpation but 
nominal in the north. It was in this province St. Patrick 
first preached the gospel, made his lirst converts, fixed his 
primatial sec and died. The invasion of this quarter in the 



1 123 ] 

12th centuiy 1)y John de Courcey, the Plantation of Ulster in 
the 17th by James I and Elizabeth, by whom hundreds of 
thousands of acres were confiscated in this one province 
and the native jiroprietors expelled to make room for Scotch 
and English adventurers, the battles of the Yellow Ford 
(10th August, 1595,) and Benburb, (5th June, 1646,) the Siege 
of Derry, (168'J,) the Dungannon Convention, (1782,) are the 
salient points of Ulster History during the English con- 
nexion. 

How many counties in this province? 

Nine: in order of size — Donegal, Tyrone, Antrim, Down, 
Derr}^, Cavan, Fermanagh, Armagh, and Monaghan. Belfast 
is the metropolis. 



CHAPTER LVII. DONEGAL. 

I have already learned that Donegal is mountainous and 
romantic, with great cliffs and sublime coast scenery. 

Situated in the north-west angle of the island, Donegal is 
much cut up on the coast, whence its manj^ fine harbors. 
On the land side it is nudged by Derrj^ Tyrone and Ferma- 
nagh, the P'oyle — including the Lough — being the phj'sical 
boundaiy-line for near half its eastern length. Two straight 
lines may be drawn at right angles in the county for eighty 
and forty miles respectively. Donegal is divided into six 
baronies, the peninsula of Ennishowen* (Owen's Island) a 
part of the ancient patrimony of the O'Dogherties, being one, 
and the sublime promontory of Banagh being another — two 
beautiful illustrations of a former position (p. 3) showing 
how the physical are the bases of the civil divisions of geo- 
graphy. 

What is the present social condition of Donegal? 

Ver}'- poor, as may be expected when nature and society 
conspire against industry. Agriculturally, this county is the 

* The fii-st part of this name means "island." Hence "Inch," an island 
in Lough Swilly; "Ennis," the capital of Clare, which is nearly surrounded 
by water; "Inchiquin" (O'Quinn's island,) in Cork; "Enniskillen," on an 
island in Loch Erne, and scores of other names with this prefix which is ap- 
plied to peninsulas and oases as well as to laud surrounded by water. 



[ 124 ] 

poorest in the island (p. 63); and the relations, as established 
"by law and politics, between landlord and tenant in Ireland 
have made Gweedore and other districts in tlie west of Don- 
egal the scene of social incongruities which have, within the 
last two years, shocked civil society within the circle of the 
Eritish press. The valleys, however, are fertile, and the riv- 
ers abound in salmon, the salmon fisheries of the Foyle and 
the Erne being among the first in the countrj^ while the 
lierring fisher}^ of the coast employs many vessels and many 
liands. The "take" of salmon in the Foyle alone, has aver- 
aged, for many years together, 2,814 cwt., or ol5,lGS lbs. per 
annum ; and the open-sea fishery of Donegal employed, in 
1849, 2,810 registered vessels and 12,188 men and boj's. 
Fine pearl-mussels are said to be found abundantly in the 
rivers of Donegal. Ennishowen has been long celebrated 
for its Avhisky, especially that termed potheen, which is pro- 
hibited by law as contraband, because manufactured secretly 
to avoid taxation. Kelp-gathering and salt works employ 
great numbers of the poor peasantry on the coasts and the 
adjacent isles, where the government schools lately intro- 
duced to teach the English language appear to be a decided 
failure, so completely Celtic and Irish-speaking are these 
people, (p. 39). 

AVhat Celtic families possessed this territory in ancient 
times? 

The O'Donnells, after one of whom it was named Tir- 
Connell, (p. 3). This fiimily tigures conspicuously during the 
struggle with England ; and since the fall of their house 
and their consequent expatriation, they have risen up in 
European politics as very prominent and able actors. France, 
Austria, and Spain, owe much and have paid much to this 
powerful family. Under the O'Donnells in Tirconnell were 
the O'Doghertys, 3IacSweeneys, O'Gallaghers, O'Clearj's, &c. 
Sir Cathir O'Dogherty of Ennishowen was he who, with 
O'.N'cill of Tir-Owen, gave the "Undertakers" such trouble 
during the "Plantation." The O'Clearj'S of the 17th cen- 
tury have left us the most valuable body of historic rec- 
ords we possess and the like of which any country may 
be proud of. Columbkille, apostle of ^Scotland, was one of 
the O'Donnell family and a native of a jjlace named Gar- 



[125] 

tan, in this county, which has, also, produced Colgan and 
that most leai-ned infidel, Toland, both born and educated 
in Ennishowen. 

Are tliere any imjiortant towns in this county? 

Very few, the largest not having 5,000 of a population 
and the ancient capital, Donegal, not having now 2,000. In 
this latter town was compiled, about two and a half cen- 
turies ago, that valuable body of Irish annals just referred 
to, which Colgan appears to have first styled, Anna/es Qua- 
fuor Maglstrorum, "Annals of the Four Masters," by which 
name the}^ are now known. Ballyshannon, on the Erne, 
which is here crossed b}' a bridge of 14 arches, and Lif- 
ford, on the Foyle, are the chief towns; the latter, being 
more central for judicial purposes, is the assize town, though 
the other has the larger population. At Litford, Red Hugh 
O'Donnell, in 1596, entertained Don Alonzo Copes, sent by 
Philip III of Spain to assist the Irish against England. 
Letterkcnny, where bishop Ebher MacMahon led 4000 men 
to a glorious grave, fighting for their country after O'Neill's 
death, is at the head of Lough Swilly, in which the brave 
AVoIfe Tone was arrested in his attempted French invasion, 
two generations afterwards (1798). Raphoe is an ancient 
bishopric founded by St. Eunan, whose Protestant succes- 
sor, in the time of Cromwell, was besieged in his pala e 
here for his friendship to the Irish and espousal of their 
cause. Bunci'ana, Ballybofx^, Stranorlar, Killybegs, and Pet- 
tjgoe are the principal other places. Near the last is the 
famous Lough Derg in which is the penitential island named 
•"St. Patrick's Purgatory." This count}' and the adjoining one 
of Tyrone were long notorious for practices of witchcraft and 
sorcery. 



CHAPTER T.VIII.— TYRONE. 

What are the physical and social features of the Q'N'Qijll'H 
countr}-? 

Not BO broadly distinct as those just reforixxli to. Muq!.1i, 
of Tj'rone on the north is coarse and hiliy; but it iiS w^Jlj 
watered and, though surrounded by five counties, baa ac(;iesa 



[ i2e ] 

to the sea by means of Lough Neagh and the Strahane 
Canal. Socially, its quarter of a million is no burden on 
the superficial area, being no more than 203 souls to the 
square mile, while Down has 335 and Armagh 382, but 
Donegal only 137! Tyrone is divided into four baronies. 

Which are its principal towns? 

Dungannon, Strabane, Omagh, Cookstown, and JSTewtown- 
stewart, with the villages of Balh'gawle}', Fintona, Clogher, 
Moneymore, Pomeroj^, Caledon, Trillick and Gortin. 

Please ex^^lain j'our recent allusion to the Dungannon 
(Convention. 

This town, situated near Lough Neagh, is the capital of 
the county, and as the residence of the O'Neills for cen- 
turies may be regarded as the ancient political motropolis 
of the province. Hence it was selected on the memorable 
15th February, 1782, by the Volunteers of the north for 
the great Convention which led the way in the movement 
for legislative independence, as alread}" explained under that 
date in my historical sketch (pp. 97, '8). The meeting was 
held in the church, the better to show the solemn serious- 
11 ness of its object and truth of its final resolution- — -"That no 
jj power on eartli hath or ought to have the right to make 
; laws for Ireland, but the King, Lords and Commons of Ire- 
land." Dungannon is now a place of about 4,000 souls, 
with some manufactures, including those of linen, earthen- 
ware, whisky, and ale. It sends one member to the House 
of Commons and has an endowed grammar-school of the 
fii'st class, known by the title of the " Eo^'al School of 
Dungannon.'' 

Describe the other jirincipal places mentioned. 

Strabane, most picturesquely situated on the right bank 
of the Foyle, quite adjacent to Lifford, which is on the left 
ill Donegal, has a larger population than Dungannon by 
ten hundred. To avoid natural obstructions to the naviga- 
tion of the river at this point, a canal of four miles con- 
nects Strabane with the open Foyle. Omagh and Cooks- 
town have each about 3,000 inhabitants; the former in the 
centre of the count}" romantically perched on an elevation, 
and the latter near Lough Neagh with its rii$-in-urhem lines 
of trees and neat houses. Not far fron Ball3'gawley is Star- 



[127] 

bog Spa, and Clogher is one of tlie most antique towns in 
the island, having been anciently a political capital, a pagan 
sanctuaiy, and subsequently the see of a l)ishop. It is now 
a poor village containing no nioi-e than six hundi'od in- 
habitants. 



CHAPTER LIX. — ANTlini, 

Having already described Antrim as it is b}' nature, please 
proceed at once to its social state. 

Socially', no part of Ireland so much resembles P'ngiand 
as the valley of the Lagan. All along hei-e, but moi'e espe- 
cially from Lisburn to Carrick'fergus, the stin-ing features 
of busy Lancashire are even more than realized; for the 
numerous bleach-greens which whiten the grass constitute a 
scene which does not much belong to the English landscape. 
This county has several important towns, namcl}^ Belfast, 
Carrickfergus, Lisburn, Ballymena, Antrim, Larne, and Bal- 
lymony, with the smaller towns of Ballycastle, Glenarm, 
Portrush, Portglenone, Eandalstown, Easharken, and Cushen- 
dall, besides the villages of Crumlin, Ball3'nure, Ballycarr}-, 
BalU'clare, Broughshane, Clogh, Bushmills, Connor, Ballintoy 
and Stranocum. These last, however, are small but neat 
places of a few hundred inhabitants each. 

Don't mind them — let us have the chief towns? 

Carrickfergus (Rock of Fergus) was considered the shire 
town of Antrim before the rise of Belfast, whose proxim- 
ity has thrown it deepl}' into the shade. It is naturally 
better situated than the latter, coninianding, as it does, the 
deep and open bay, the internal angle of which Avas for u 
long time obstructed by sand l)ars which prevented heavy 
vessels from coming nearer to Belfast than Crarmoyle, four 
miles. This is no longer the case, however, and the little 
maratime village at the mouth of the Lagan in the ITtii 
century, ranks now witli the Liverpools and New Orleans 
and Melbournes of the 19th. Carrick, howevei', is still an 
important town surrounded Avith bleach-greens and up- 
roarious with the cotton manufacture. Its population does 
not exceed 4,000, but it is well garrisoned, its bold castle 



[128 1 

on a projecting rock — like the turrets of " proud Dunlnco " 
in the north— commanding- the harbor. 

That will do — what is the populatioii of Lisburn? 

Near 7,000. It is a river-port wliere M. Cromlin, a 
European refugee, settled down, as referred to before, (p. 33), 
and gave an impetus to the industry of Ulster which has 
kept it astir ever since. The revocation of the Edict of 
Nantz and the Ivevolution sent other exiles to the same 
quarter, where their presence had a similar influence. On 
the other hand, the commercial panic of 1825-'G sent Drog- 
heda weavers to Fi-ance, America and England where they 
with others of their countrymen, liave fully returned the 
compliment, and are still met with at Eouen, Manchester, 
AVigan and several parts of the New World. Lisburn and 
Carrickfergus have the privilege of* parliamentary represen- 
tation, making six members of parliament for this one count}'. 

Of the other towns? 

Ballymena has the largest population. It is a flourishing, 
well-educated community of about 0,000, on the Braid, near 
its junction with the Maine. This town, like Dundalk 
in Louth, is blessed with a great number of excellent semi- 
naries. The generally accurate Blackie makes Antrim the 
capital of the county, though not having half as many den- 
izens as Lisburn or Ballymena, and not a fortieth the popu- 
ulation of Belfast! At Antrim is a round tower whose door 
lintel exhibits a sculptured cross, thus supporting Petric's 
Christian theory of these stone-and-mortar puzzles. And 
here, also, has machinery been first applied in Ulster to the 
manufacture of paper. Larne, on the Lough of that name, 
is a watering place but not remarkable for beauty. Glen- 
arm, Ballycastle, Bushmills and Portrush are all maratime 
ami highly picturesque in situation. Glenarm, in particular, 
is a little scenic gem. 8oon alter the discover}- of bitume- 
nous coal near Balljx-astle and Ballintoj', (p. 50), the Irish 
parliament granted considerable sums towards the erection 
of a pier, and improving the harbor, of the former place, 
which Avorks the great ocean currents at that point ulti- 
matel}" ruined. Ballj'castle and Carrick are two of the twenty - 
eight fisher}- districts into which the Irish coast is sectioned. 
These two districts extend 121 miles, andcmplo^'ed in IS-IO, G3G 



[129] 

registered vessels and over 2,000 hands. Of the remaining: 
towns Ballymoney, north midland, is the most important. 
Every one of these places is bvisy as a beehive in the linen 
industry. 



CHAPTER LX. — BELFAST 

What is the size and population of Belfast? 

The population of a town is generally a good indication of 
its size. Belfast has now a larger population than Cork, that 
is over 120,000, and is every year increasing; while Cork 
has been stationary in business and in population since '-11. 
Belfast is 88 miles north of Dublin, 130 from Glasgow, and 
nearly the same distance from Liverpool. Its spacious streets 
and squares, extensive shops and forest of shipping in the 
harbor, alone impress the stranger as those of a metropolis 
and first class commercial emporium. It has some but not 
many good pieces of architecture; in particular, the new 
Custom House and Post-office, tlie Queen's College, built at 
a cost of £25,000, and opened for the first time in 1849, the 
"old college," and one or two other buildings, with a few 
of the principal churches. The main Bridge is also a fine 
structure, consisting of twenty-one arches turned with cut 
free-stone for a length of over two thousand five hundred 
feet. To me the national Biodel school of Belfast appears 
in many respects superior to the centi-al normal establish- 
ment in Dublin, of which it is a branch. Botanical, horti- 
cultural and other natural -history societies, the Academical 
Institution, the Belfast Academy, a Lancasterian* with many 
other sectional schools and private seminaries, male and fe- 
male, provide munificently for education in 'Hhe Modern 
Athens." 

In a manufacturing point of view? 

It is before Dublin. In 1850, upwards of thii'ty steam mills 
for spinning linen yarn were at work in this one locality, one 

*So called after Lancaster, a hot-headed and imprudent youth, but most 
zealous educator, who started up in England about the same time as Bell, 
towards the close of last century, and established there the monitorial 
system. 



[130] 

house alone omployins^ 1200 hands at an annual cost of 
£20,000 (S96,00U,) consuming 3'early ten hundred tons of 
flax and producing over half a million bundles of yarn, 
worth half a million of dollars. About 300,000 spindles 
whirl daily in the linen and cotton industry of this one lo- 
cality. There are besides distilleries, breweries, tan-j-ards, 
vitriol works, bleach greens, corn mills, founderies, ship- 
yards, &c., all in plethoric health and activity here. 

In a commercial point of view? 

Twenty-five steamers constantly \)]y between Belfast and 
the great ports of the two islands; 9 of this number, and 452 
sailing vessels, the tonnage of which latter was about 77,000, 
were registered as belonging to Belfast in 1851. In which 
year the tonnage of all vessels entering the port in the 
coast and cross -channel trade alone was 000,000, and in the 
foreign trade 90,000 more. In the same year the shipping 
tonnage which cleared out of this port in the foreign trade 
was 74,000; and in tiie home trade, 351,000. 

What form of municipal government has this town? 

It is governed by a mayor, nine aldermen and thirty coun- 
cillors, assisted by magistrates and a large military establisl^- 
nient, including the civic and rural police, the latter named 
"constabulary," Notwithstanding, the town is periodically 
disgraced by Orange riots in which life and property are 
imperiled and occasionally lost. Belfast sends two members 
to the British parliament. 



CHAPTER LXI. — DOWNSHIRE. 

Looking into Blackie's Imperial Gazetteer of the world I 
see it says — " The highest summits (of Ulster) are in the 
county Donegal," which contradicts statements of yours in 
our eighth dialogue, (p. 11.) 

The highest summits of Ulster arc in the mountain ba- 
ron}' of Mourne, Count}^ of Down, where the "Greater" and 
"Lesser" Cairn of Slieve Donard have respective elevations 
of 2,796 and 2,720 feet perpendicular, almost at the verge of 
the sea; while the highest in Donegal, Arrigal, has an ele- 
vation of only 2,462, and being more inland is, as a matter of 



[1311 

course, less objective.^ It is true, however, ihnt this harony 
of Mourne is an exception to the general face of the eoim- 
ty, as most of all the waste land in whose ten baronies is 
collected into this one, where mountain wastes alone cover 
forty thousand acres! 

Is it necessary to dwell on the social aspect of this county? 

It is not, as Antrim and Down arc more alike socially than 
phj'sically, the tw^o counties being separated by only the 
Lagan river and canal. The linen and cotton manufactures 
present the same features in both counties, while parts of 
Belfast and Lisburn belong to Down and part of iS'ewry 
to Armagh. Of the 21 arches which compose the Ballymacaret 
bridge at Belfast, 18 belong to Down. No county in Ire- 
land presents the aspect of rural comfort and neatness more 
than Down. In three-fourths of the island all look to the 
land for support, but in this and the other maratime coun- 
ties of the north, the fisheries and manufactures relieve the 
soil of this crushing incubus to a very great extent. The 
fishery districts of Down are Donaghadee and New-castle, 
which occupied in '45, l,-442 vessels and 5,530 men and bojs. 

Are there any good towns in this county? 

Newry — in the "Lordship of Newry," a territory of special 
privilege — is an important place of 13,473 inhabitants, 
the largest town population (omitting Belfast and Derry) in 
Ulster. It is situated on the Newry-water which consists of 
river and canal, the latter extending two miles below the town 
to the beautiful Lough of Carlingford, (p. 15,) through which 
it communicates with the Irish Sea. This Ijough or Bay is 
stored with excellent oysters, the dredging and sale of which 
employ man}' hands. In 1851, 107 sailing vessels and 2 steam- 
ers belonged to this inland port, the united tonnage of 
which was about 0,000. In that year the tonnage which 
entered here fron\ all quarters, was over 124,000, and some- 
thing over 77,000 tons of shipping cleared out. This town 
is represented in parliament. 



■The next, highest mountains in these Iavo counties stand thus: 



DONEGAL r>OW.\. 



Bluestack, - - -2,218 feet. 
Muckish, - - - 2,190 " 
Slieve Suaght, - - 2,020 " 



Slieve Beamagh, - - 2,394 feet. 
" Meel Beg, - - - 2,810 " 
" Meel More, - -' 2,237 » 



[ 132 ] 

I perceive Colton's Atlas locates this town in Armagh. 

Such mistakes are quite common when foreign writers, 
including English and Scotch, ti-eat of Ireland. Even the 
viceroy's sent over to govern the country have been no- 
toriously ignorant of Irish gcograph3^ One of them, Lord 
de Gray, betrayed the extent of this ignorance some 3^ears 
ago, b}' a question not less ridiculous than this — if Cincin- 
nati be in North Carolina! 

Where and what kind of a town is Downpatrick? 

" Patrick's Dhun," or fort, notwithstanding the import 
of the term, is in a steep vaile}', the rath or mound con- 
sisting of three concentric ramparts enclosing a conical nu- 
cleus sixty feet above the base, from which the place derives 
the name, is situated to the north-west of the town and is 
supjiosed to have been the site of a regal residence. In 
this town St. Patrick was buried and here, for ages, his 
reliques were enshrined, as, those also of his two principal 
disciples, St. Cohimbkillc and St. Bridget of Kildare. The 
place was, consequently, held in the greatest veneration and, 
like St. Patrick's Purgator}', in Donegal, the Hill of Strual, 
near Downpatrick, and the holy wells of the vicinity, Avhich 
are powerfully medicinal, have long been the rendezvous 
of pilgrims in search of spiritual and corporal consolation. 
Downpatrick is a very ancient town, ranked formerly as a 
cit}', and is still a place of about 5,000 inhabitants, much 
business, and sends a member to Parliament. It is on the 
Quoyle, near the junction of that stream with the land- 
locked fiord of Strangford which admits vessels of 100 tons 
to come up to the quay. Soap, ale, leather and other man- 
ufactures are carried on in the town, which has a diocesan 
school and the usual county buildings. 

Please name and identify the other towns of this county? 

Newtownards is a modern community in the barony of 
Ards (highland) with an important population of 10,000. 
Like Ballymena in Antrim, it is blessed with many fine 
schools and has a tasteful female population engaged in the 
embroidery of muslin. Donaghadee, also in the barony 
of Ards, is the Scotch packet-station and port. Like 
Clontai'f at Dublin, Donaghadee presents a crescent to the sea, 
viewed from which it is an object of interest. One of the 



[133] 

best artificial harbors in Ireland is here, built at considerable 
cost b}^ the Irish parliament, as a port of embarkation for 
Portpatrick in Scotland, distant only about 22 miles, across 
which either place may be seen by the unaided eye in clear 
weather. liathfriland would appear to be the most elevated 
town in the county if not in the province. Portaferry (ferry- 
port) is also in the Ards, on the entrance or straits of Lough 
Strangford, so called from the village of Strangford (Strong- 
ford) situated precisely opposite, between which two towns 
is the only safe "ferry " across the " strong" currents Avhich 
rush in and out here and create the Ballyculter whirl- 
pools, (p. 15.) Dromore, Hillsborough, (Ilill's-town) Ban- 
gor, Ballynahinch, Killilcagh, Moira, Ardglass, Castlcwellan, 
Rostrevor, Killough, Dundrum, Kew-castle, Banbridge, (bridge 
across the Bann) Gilford, Smithfield, Comber, Hollywood, 
AVarinstown, Clough, Loughbrickland (Lake of trouts,) and 
other villages are all in this county. 

Which of all these are the most remarkable or important? 

Historically, Bangor and Dromore — biographically, Killi- 
lcagh — antiquarian ly, Ardglass — geographically, Killough — 
picturesquely, Rostrevor — industrially, Ball3'nahinch, Ban- 
bridge and Loughbrickland, which la,st is so named from an 
adjoining lake of 75 acres which abounds in speckled trout. — 
Bangor-!^ was such another place of piety and learning as 
Lismore (p. 120.) Dromore is a bisho])ric since the days 
of St. Coleman ; the great naturalist. Sir Hans Sloan was 
born at Killileagh and St. Jarlath, in Mourne ; some puz- 
zling old ruins are at Ardglass j and at Killough are some 
interesting natural curiosities. 



CHAPTER LXII. — DERRT. 

I see by the map, that the next largest county in Ulster 
lies between Antrim and Donegal on the east and west re- 
spectively, with Tyrone on the south. 

Yes, and between Lough Foyle and Lough Ncagh. Berry 
is not remarkable for size or a large per-centage of arable 

* This is also the name of a venerable and most picturesque town on the 
north coast of Wales. 



r 



[134] 

land. It has no high mountains, yet some sweet scenery. 
In this county, on the hanks of the Fo^^le, was laid the base-line 
of the trigonometrical sarve}'' instituted some years ago by 
government, whence all Ireland was triangled, surveyed,^and 
mapped upon the great scale of six inches to the mile, and 
in a style of minuteness, completeness, and accuracy in which 
neither England nor Scotland nor, perhaps, any other country 
has yet been portrayed. 

Is not Deny the capital of this county? 

Socially it is, but physically it belongs to Donegal, being 
on the left bank of the Foyle, which divides the two coun- 
ties, and its Liberties occupying a lai'ge part of Ennishowen 
peninsula, a Donegal barony. In like manner, the Liberties 
of Coleraia are taken from Antrim. 

How many citizens has Derry, and what class of town is it ? 

In '51 its population was returned at 19,888, being half 
a thousand less than that of '41. It is the second town 
and port in Ulster; and from its conspicuous position on a 
hill, the houses rising in tiers over each other crowned by 
the fine old cathedral on the top, with the broad mirror of 
the Foyle beneath, it is an object of surpassing interest. 
Yet, Derry has been named "a town of back streets." Here 
are flour mills, flax mills, roperies, breweries, tanneries and 
distilleries which, with agriculture, indicate its five million 
dollars' worth of exports. 716 sailing vessels with 391 
steamers, whose united tonnage was 166,000, entered this 
port in 1850. 

Is not this city a place of much historical interest? 

Politically it is, though — like Belfast — a modern port. 
As a town of the Pale, it dates from the Plantation of 
Ulster, in the reign of James I, who handed this Avhole 
district over to a London corporation, on condition of hunt- 
ing out the natives and planting it with British. The poli- 
cy, however inhuman and unjust, was a shrewd one, as 
Derry — from that circumstance styled London-Derry — has 
been ever since the back-bone of the English power in 
Ireland. It has been as often attacked since by the Irish 
as Limerick by the English, and both equally deserve our 
admiration for intrepidity of which themselves are the best 
parallels. The sieges of Derry in the 17th century are 



[135] 

among the most remarkable in modern histor}'. To eoni- 
momorate that of 1689 the city has a monument to tlie 
Rev. George Walker, the brave defender of Derry, who lost 
his life soon after at the Boyne. The famous Farqnahar 
was a native of this city, and the great Abernethy is claimed 
by Colerain, 

What is the population of Colerain? 

6,000, residing on the Bann, about two miles from the sea, 
and engaged in agriculture, manufactui-es, and fisheries. The 
take of salmon on the Bann amounts to an average of 280 
tons annually. The fine linen fabrics of this town and 
county are the well-known " coleraines." Cotton, leather, 
soap, and paper ai*e also manufactured in this flourishing 
town. Derry and Colerain scud two members to parliament. 

Any other large town in the county? 

Newtown-Limavaddy (Dog's Leap) is the only one with 
3,000 inhabitants. Maa-herafelt, Maghera, Dungiven, Garvagh, 
Moneymore, Ballykelly, Clady, Feeny, Swatragh, Kilrea, Bel- 
laghy. Muff, and Desartmartin are all small places, the most 
important of which, Magherafelt, has not 2,000 people. 



CHAPTER LXIII. — CAVAN. 

I see Cavan is the most southern county in this province. 
It shall not detain us long, as it has no large town, if that 
so named with about 5,000 souls be not regarded as such. 
This county is divided into eight baronies, has much coarse 
land, many small lakes and bogs, a few mountains of no 
great height, some minerals, mineral waters, and mineral 
works in the metallic district of Cuilcagh and Swanlinbar, 
(p. 75, &c.) and 78 per cent, of arable land. Its lakes occupy 
four per cent, of its surface. Its population in '51 was 174,- 
000, giving 233 to each square mile, whose educational wants 
are provided for by an endowed grammar-school in the chief 
town, Avith many j)rivate seminaries, for the upper classes, 
and 158 national schools for the lower. The growing, bleach- 
ing and manufacture of flax is here also a general pursuit. 
The illustrious Sheridan family is from this county. 
Name the principal towns? 



[130] 

Cavan, Coothill, Belturbet, Ballyhaise, Bailieborougli, Bally- 
jamesduff, Virginia, Shercock, Butler's-Bridge, Ballyconnel 
and Killeshaudra. Coothill has four pretty spacious streets, 
but only about 2,000 inhabitants. Belturbet, on the Erne, 
bas about the same population but is of less consequence. 
Ballyhaise is a email but pretty place of much industrial 
activity. 



CHArTER LIV. — FERMANAGH. 

I perceive by data already given (pp. 20 and 63) that 
Lough Erne covers nearl}^ the one-twelfth of the entire county 
Fermanagh! 

Very shrewd, indeed; but the precise proportion of the 
county'" covered by water is 10. 22 per cent., in other words, 
nearlj^ a tithe, constituting quite a peculiar feature of this 
county; for though Galway contains more than twice the 
quantity of water possessed by Fermanagh, its great land 
area reduces its Avater per ceutage to about half tliat just 
given. 

Do those lakes in any wa}^ com^iensate fur this intrusion 
on terra firmaf 

Salmon, trout, pike, bream, eels, perch, are largely yielded 
up by Lough Erne, which is navigated, on account of its 
numerous islands, by flat-bottomed boats, 

Pra}'", what maybe the depth of the two lakes? 

The Lower and larger swallows the plummet to the depth 
of 225 feet, and the Uj^i^er to that of 75 in some places, 
but more frequently not to half that extent, as many of the 
ninety islands in this smaller lake are large, thus giving 
parts of this sheet much the appearance of a labyrinth of 
channels. It appears to me, therefore, invariably exagge- 
rated on all the maps I have ever seen, except those of the 
trigonometrical or town land -survey. 

Now, respecting the land? 

It is known to possess coal and the useful metals, but 
there is little encouragement to work them. The county 
has some wood, and this is one of the beautiful features of 
Lough Erne, The soil is good, bad, and indifferent; and the 
population only 162 to the square mile. 



I 137 ] 

That will do; coiuc now to the towns. 

Tiie_y arc vciy few. Enniskillen, the capital, has no more 
than G,000 inhabitants. It is beautifully situated on the left 
bank of the channel which flows from the Upper to the Lower 
sheet, through both of which it receives supplies as a lake- 
port. Politically, it is such another place as Derry, being 
remarkable for loyalty to the British crown ; in compliment 
to which, as exhibited on certain occasions, it is flattered in 
the name of a regiment of British cavalry, the "Enniskil- 
len Dragoons," which when first raised consisted mainly of 
Fermanagh men. Irvinstown, Pettigo, Brooksborough, Tem- 
po, Lowtherstown, Derrygonnelly, Newton-Butler, Callowhill, 
Bally-Cassidy, with a few other very small villages, are 
each under 2,000 population. It will be noticed, that several 
of these names have been derived from those of families 
mostly British. Ballycassidy (Cassidy's Church) and Deny- 
gonnelly are, however, Irish. The ('assidys were scribes to 
the Maguiros, hereditary princes of Fermanagh, in the Celtic 
polity; and as such owned a large tract of land on the shore 
of the Lake, corresponding to the modoxii barony in which 
the town is situated. Charles Maguire of Fermanagh was a 
distinguished writer of the 15th century, to Avhom and to the 
Cassidys is ascribed the "Annals of Ulster." 



CHAPTER LXV. ARMAGH. 

• 

I perceive Armagh is one of the smallest counties in Ire- 
land. 

Yes, but it is one of the good things which are made up in 
small i^arcels. The mountains are few, the Fews being low, 
and Slieve Guillion isolated ; the soil is generally rich ; no big 
lakes encroach on its surface ; it has some bog, especially in 
the north, but much if not all of it is a domestic require- 
ment. It has the densest population and is the most flax- 
growing, apple-producing and cider-yielding county in Ire- 
land, taking its size into account. Its linen manufacture, 
muslin -embroidery and crotchet-works occupy thousands, 
male and lemale. Its farms are generally very small, but 
16 



[ 138 ] 

its farm -yards, cottages, and towns, look white, neat. and com- 
forLablo. In short, Armagh is one of the happiest counties 
in the kingdom. 

I observe by the map that, though an inland county, it has 
access to the sea by the Newry and Lagan waters, the for- 
mer dividing it from Down on the cast, and the hitter opening 
Loiigh Neagh, which bounds it on the north. 

And by moans of the BLackwater, which separates it from 
Tyrone, and of tlie Ulster Canal, a moiety of which runs 
through Armagh, this county has land and water commu- 
nication with the west, as well as with the east and north. 
Thus flax-seed, teas, sugars, wines, &c., conie in, and thus its 
"stout armaghs," yarns, ladies' wear, cider, marbles, butter, 
and other fiirm produce go out. This county has 382 in- 
habitants to every square mile of 513. 

I understood you to say that the city of Armagh is the 
ecclesiastical metropolis of Ireland? 

So it is, and was the civil capital also, about the period of 
the Danes. Dublin rose to be the latter, and, consequently, 
claimed for a long time to be the former. This long dispute 
for jnumacy was ultimately decided in favor of Armagh, 
Avhich city holds the same relation to Dublin that Canterbury 
docs to London. The archbishop of Dublin, however, is 
still styled " primate of Ireland;" but the archbishop of Ar- 
magh '■ primate of all Ireland" — a rather nice distinction 
which nevertheless, both churches recognize. This ccclcsi- 
siastical precedence arises frcflu the fact, that St. Patrick 
selected this place for his residence and sec, which, de facto, 
constituted it the lirst archbishopric of the Irish church ; 
while Dublin, Cashel and Tuam did not attain the archipis- 
copal dignity till the arrival of Cardinal Paparo in 1153. 
From the year 444 till the arrival of the Danes, who burned 
Armagh almost to the foundations, it was the site of colleges, 
churches, convents, and monasteries, the rendezvous of for- 
eigners and the pride of the natives. The university of Ar- 
magh was esteemed the first in Europe, and to it we are told 
Europeans flocked as to light in those dark ages. The " Jiook 
of Armagh " is, I believe, still extant. It is one of the many 
ancient Irish records, but now one of the few which have 
escaped the Dane, the Saxon, and the moth. Many Cath- 



[139] 

olic and Protestant prelates of this sec have been illustri- 
ous as authors. 

What is the status of this city at the present time? 

The last census gives it a civic jiopulation of 9,306, but sev- 
enteen years before, it numbered 10,76-i. Like Derry, Ar- 
magh (Ard-magh — "high field") is on a hill, the highest 
point of which, is the conspicuous site of the fine old cathe- 
dral, whose spire is 150 feet above the summit. This ed- 
ifice belongs to the Established Church and was built about 
1675 on the site of the ancient temple ; but it will be soon 
thrown into the shade by the new Catholic cathedral whoso 
splendid proportions crown the summit of an adjoining hill 
and which, when completed, will be the most imposing mod- 
ern church in the island.* Armagh is on the Callen river 
and is remarkable for cleanliness which approaches neatness 
in every part, and the appearance of the population cor- 
responds. That of the female portion can not well be oth- 
erwise, considering their genei'al occupation — embroidery, 
lace, and crotchet-work for the Glasgow market. Armagh 
has an excellent observatory, a " Royal School," a public li- 
brary of 20,000 vols., tanneries, flour-mills, factories, a linen - 
hall, a district lunatic asylum, the building of which cost 
$100,000, with several handsome streets. 

Is there any other town in this county as largo as that 
just noticed? 

There is not. Lurgan, the most important has not, all out, 
5,000 inhabitants. It is advantageousl}^ and handsomely 
situated near the shore of Lough Neagh and the Newiy 
and Lagan navigation. Portadown, situated on the latter, 
is a canal "port" of much business, on the borders of "Down," 
and exceeds 3,000 in point of ])opulation. The other towns, 
Loughall, Newtown-Hamilton, Middleton, Portnorris, Mohan, 
Culloville, Tynan, Acton, &c., are all under that figure in 
the same respect, but very busy in the linen industry. 



CHAPTER LXVI. — MONAGIIAN. 

We have now come to the smallest and therefore, the last 
* It was ready for the roof when the writer saw it in the autumn of '57. 



[ lio ] 

coiiiily ill the [n'ovince of Ulster — what is to be suid of it? 

Moiiaghun Jidjoins Aniiagh and is 14 square miles less in 
extent, yet it has a length of 37 by a breadth of 23 miles. — 
This county is divided into 5 baronies and has more arable 
land, in proportion to its size, than any other in the prov- 
ince and even than any other in the kingdom, except two — 
Meath and Kilkenu}-. Nevertheless, it has several small 
lakes, bogs and coarse districts ; G per cent of its surface is 
occupied by water. Its population is 284 to the square mile, 
JJke all the rest of this province, it is busy in the staple man- 
ufacture of the countr}-, to which the Ulster Canal and the sev- 
eral streams and lakes reticulating the shire are a great advan- 
tage. In '51 there were 140 national schools, attended by 
about 14,000 children in the county. 

Describe the chief towns. 

Monaghan on the Ulster Canal near the middle of the terri- 
tory is a place of not quite 4,000 people. It has a good square, 
some neat streets, holds large pig markets, and does a con- 
siderable business in grain. Clones, as a term, has perhaps the 
same import as Cloyne (p. 107) and its history- corresponds It 
is a very ancient city, grey and venerable with ruins. It num- 
bers now about two and a half thousand inhabitants. Ballj^bay 
is a place of education and much activity, for its size, not hav- 
ing 2,000 all out. Carrickmacross has a grammar-school and the 
privilege of electing a member to parliament. It is a clean 
village, consisting of one good street with several radiations, 
inhabited by 2,000. The best of the remaining places in this 
county are Castleblaney, (Lord Blaney's residence) Newbliss, 
Castle Shane, Bellatrain, Drum, and Glasslough, on a pretty 
glassy lake. It is a significant historical fact, that the Judge 
and jury who tried the MacMahon of Monaghan came in for his 
property. The repulse of Cremona, in which a MacMahon of 
Monaghan was a principal agent, is said to have fully paid for 
the forfeited estates. 



[141] 



L E I N S T E U . 
CHAPTER LXVir. — GENERAL FEATURES. 

I have already learned, that the metropolitan province is 
the most level, has the least water superficies (p. 17), the 
smallest quantity of waste land, and is, consequentlj^, the 
most fertile quarter of Ireland, (p. 02.) T have also got a 
glimpse of its history, as suhjeet to Munstcr in the ancient 
biterraqueous arrangement, and tributary to it in that ol' the 
I'entarchy, as being from the first the seat of English power 
in Ireland, and the centre from which it has radiated to the 
north, west and south. What more about Leinster? 

Its most easterly points, Wicklow Head and Lambay Island, 
are just touched b}' the 71st parallel of longitude east of 
Washington, which is also identical with the Gth west of 
Greenwich. It has Ulster on the north, Connaught, tiie 
Shannoti and Munster on the west and south-west, with the 
ocean and the river 8uir on the south. Witliin these limits 
are t!,S07i square miles, with 219 souls to the square mile. 
Leinster has more teachers, more ministers of religion, more 
doctors, and more lodging-house keepers than uuy other of 
the provinces, owing, perhaj)s, to the weight of Dublin in tiic 
scales. Socially, it appears to resemble Munster more than 
Ulster, agriculture being the almost sole pursuit of the rural 
]K}pulation, and the Catholic religion being professed by the 
vast majority even in Dublin. Its othei- natural, historical, 
and existing civil features will be noticed as we proceed 
throiiijh its counties. 



CHAPTER LXVIIl. MEATH. 

By your statistical tables I see, that the ooiintj^ of Meath 
1-3 the largest in Leinstei" and the most arable in Ireland; 
what other distinction has it? 

Meath or East Meath, to distinguish it from West Meatli, 
which adjoins it and was anciently a part of it, is the most 



[142] 

historical district in tlio country. In olden times '"the terri- 
tory natned Mcath comprehended about 2,400 square miles, 
in our measurement; but tlie modern shire so named contains 
but 90G of tliat area. Louth, Longford and West Meath, as 
well as the county under consideration, appear to have con- 
stituted the ancient Meath which held a similar relation to 
the four independent provinces that the District of Colum- 
bia holds, in our own times, to the United States and Ter- 
ritories. This Columbia is neither a "State" nor a "Terri- 
tory" nor belonging to an}'- state or territory, but a "dis- 
trict" set apart for the more complete independence of the 
general government ruling at Washington, the metropolis, 
which is in this district. In like manner, the ancient Meath 
was distinct from the four provinces, for the more complete 
independence of the monarchs and general government sit- 
ting at Tara, which is in this locality. The parallel is very 
noticeable, but the ancient Irish metropolitan district was 
many times larger than the modern American "district" of 
Washington ; and the parallel is further diverted by the fact, 
that the latter does not govern itself, while the foriner 
ranked politically as a fifth province, self-governed and inde- 
25endent. On the Hill of Tara the G-enoral Assembly of the 
nation, consisting of the monarch, the four provincial kings, 
the subordinate princes and representatives of the ecclesi- 
archy held its triennial sessions. This hill is in the present 
Meath, about a score miles from Dublin towards Trim, and 
on its top was held, in 1843, 23erhaps the greatest of O'Con- 
nell's "monster meetings," computed to have numbered near 
a million of men, on which occasion a cap resembling the 
li'ish crown was placed upon his head and he gave emphat- 
ic expression to this sentiment — "Here, before God, and in 
the name of the Irish ]ieople, I proclaim the L^nion a nul- 
lily." Tlie celebrated Hugh de Lacy, one of the invaders 
of the 12th century and the most potent, having obtained 
in marriage a daughter of lioderick O'Connor, the monarch, 
came in for the pi'ovince of Meath, which then became a 
])alatinate under the English crown, and in which this De 
Lacy was more of a little sovereign than a big subject. 

At present, what are the distinguishing features of this 
county? 



[143] 

It has only 10 miles of coast, Lontli and Dublin confinini;- 
it to that limit on the east; but internallj^ it expands to 47 
by 40. It is divided into eighteen baronies, an unusually 
large number, is generally level, yet lias some beautil'iil 
scenery, especially on the Boyne and, best of all, it has some 
of the richest soil in Europe. 

Has this county any large towns? 

It has not, unless wo regard as such one of 4,000 peo- 
ple. This was the human number of Navan a few j'cars 
ago, and is the largest town-population in the county. Navan 
is pleasantly situated on the Boyne, has one good sti-eet, 
a flourishing Catholic grammar-school, locally named "the 
College," and a well-wooded domain overlooking the river, 
wliich winds a little further down through a still moi-e 
scenic plantation. A branch of the Dublin, Droghcda, and 
Belfast railway diverges inland to Navan and Kells. 

Is there any other town hereabout of sufficient import- 
ance to detain us? 

Trim, also on the Boj-nc, is regarded as capital of the 
shire, though now numbering onl}' 2,000 inhabitants. It is 
certainly a place of much historical importance, as its eccle- 
siastical ruins and the several parliaments-!^ held here must 
testify. In 1538 an image of the Virgin Mar}^, which hatl 
been preserved for many centuries in Mary's Abbey founded 
here by St. Patrick, was publicly burned; and about the 
same time St. Patrick's staff, a most valued relic, was simi- 
larly disposed of, in High-street, Dublin, by Henry the Eighths 
archbishop, Brown. This Abbey of Trim was greatly ruined 
by Cromwell in the next century, it having given him a 
brave resistance. Kells is another ancient town, situated on 
the Leinster Blackwater. It was once an episcopal cit}' and 
is remarkable for having been the jDlace where Cardinal 
Paparo, in 1153, conferred the four archiepiscopal palls on 
Armagh, Dublin, Cashel and Tuam. Here is one (if the best- 
preserved of the round towers, rising 100 feet from the groum.l, 
and here was one of those highly artistic stone crosses now so 
rare, but of which those still existing at Clonmacnoise and 
a few other places are splendid specimens. Slane and Duleek 



* Two rival parliaments and two rival viceroys, each party claimin": to 
represent England, belegislated the province at one time ! 



[IM] 

■were also ancient bishoprics. The former is tlie pla.ce men- 
tioned ill J risk history as that where St. Patrick lighted 
that forbidden fire, on his way to Tara, wliich so alarmed 
the Druids and astonished the General Assembl}" of the na- 
tion. The first stone church in the island is said to have 
been buiit at Duleek (Domleagh — "stone church") Eatoath, 
Athboy, Dunshaghlin, Crossakeel, Carlastown, Dunboyne, 
Jiathmolin, Summer Hill, Moynalty and ]N<obber arc the prin- 
cipal other villages. Carolan, tlie Irish bard and musician, 
wliose traditionary fame is so great in Ireland, was a native 
of Nobber. Ho died, 1738. 

Are we now done with Meath ? 

Yes, wdien I draw your attention to the artificial liill of 
New Grange, near Slane, discovered to be such not very 
many j-ears ago, by a herd who Avas grazing his cattle on 
its slope. The interior of this little hill in hollow, forming a 
rude temple, or, perhaps, sepulchral vault in the shape of a 
rotiindo or conical dome, built of uncemented masses of rock. 
Near it is Dowth, another place of like interest. 



CHAPTER I.XIX. — WEXFORD. 



Is not Wexford the second-largest county in Leinster? 

It is; and, guided by our rule of size, we must now jump 
from the north to the south of this province. This county 
is rhomboidal in shape and has two of its sides washed by 
ilie sea. On the north it is nudged by Wicklow, and on 
ilie west by Carlow and Kilkenny, from which last it is sep- 
ai-nted by the Barrow. 

VV^hat are the most distinguishing features of this connty? 

Physicall}', its very dangerous shores, and historically its 
relation to the first English invaders and the Eebellion of 
'98. This county is level towards the south but hilly to- 
wards the north. The Black Stairs' chain, in the north-west, 
parts it from Carlow and is mostly within the latter county. 
Points of this group go up to 2,604 feet above the sea. The 
auriferous hills of Croghan, on the borders of Wicklow, are 



[145] 

mostly in Wexford and exceed 2,000 feet, tlie golden side 
being in the other county .-i^ (P. 10.) 

Are the towns of Wexford of much present importance? 

They are. Wexford, ISew Eoss, and Enniscorthy are good 
business and populous towns. Gorey, Perns and Newtown- 
Barry are less in importance, but still stirring places. 

Describe the first-named and let mo know its population. 

Wexford is upon a naturally chiseled harbor. A long prong 
of land rurning due north approacliing a lesser Jutland point- 
ing due south, both enclosing a sj^acious haven towards which 
they bear the relation of break -waters, while between the two 
points is a channel of considerable breadth leading into the 
harbor. Nevertheless, rocks and slioals abound j and within 
and without sand-bars enter nature's protest against the en- 
trance here of heavy vessels. The town population in ^51 was 
12,815. In the same year, one steamer and 103 sailing vessels, 
whoso united tonnage was over 9,000, were registered as be- 
longing to this port; while the entries from all quarters were 
45 steainere and G47 sailing vessels, whose united tonnage was 
50,000 — almost all engaged in the coast and cross-channel 
trade, its foreign being very trifling. 

Has this town any historical reminiscences of the character 
above spoken of. 

It has. It was here the first English and Welsh su'ccors of 
MacMorough landed, 11G9, under the leadership of Eobert 
Fitzstcphcns and Mavirice Fitzgerald, who wei'e followed soon 
after by the whole gang, all arriving as near to this spot as 
they could, in those star-steering days. 

Was this by accident or design and, if the latter, what? 

Obviousl}' by design, notwithstanding the dangerous coast, 
of which MacMorough must have apprised them. This prince 
was waiting their arrival here, either ensconced in his castle 
of Ferns or the surrounding w^oods of Ily Kinsellagh. By 
landing at this place the foreigners expected some friends and 
the least Bumber of enemies; and if they had any ambition to 
be regarded other than pirates or gratuitous aggressors of nat- 



■•■■ Anoilier precious liill of this name is in the King's county. It is an 
igneous conglomerate protrusion through limestone, yielding not mineral 
but vegetable gold ! — heavy crops " without any manure whatever." 



[14G] 

ural rights, they could show their letters of invitation from a 
bad man, 'tis true, but still the hereditary sovereign of tJtis ter- 
ritory. And it appears to me, the}^ were both faithful to their 
e)igagements with him and brave in their engagements of an- 
other kind. 

Now, respecting the llebcllion of '98? 

Since the year 1G41, no sucii scenes took place in Ireland or, 
j'jerliaps, anj-whero else in Europe, except Paris during the first 
lievolution, as those which this county of Wexford presented 
during the summer of that terrible year. Pitch-caps, triangles, 
torture, shooting and burning were the order of the day, on 
both sides ; the wanton cruelty and bigotry of the North Cork 
militia, composed chiefly of Orangemen, having roused the 
masses to the fullest retaliation, cutting up that and other reg- 
iments at the Ilill of Oulart, Three-llocks, Gorey, New-Eoss 
and hunting them ignominiously out of the chief town. The 
engagement on Vinegar Hill, however, proved fatal to the in- 
surgents ultimately. 

Wliat is the position and wliat the population of New-Ross? 

This is an inland port, 25 miles from the sea, on the import- 
ant river Barrow, which admits the tide still further up, and 
floats vessels of 200 tons at the quay hero, even at low water. 
Including the suburb of Rosbercon at the Kilkenny side of 
the river, with which it is united by one of those splendid 
wooden bridges built in Ireland, by Mr. Cox, a celebrated 
American architect, the population of this important town 
exceeded 9,000 in '41, 

Has Enniscorthy any historic associations of present in. 
teres t? 

Near this town is the celebrated Vinegar Hill, on which the 
principal engagement was fought, June 21st, 1798, (p. 99.) — 
This town, as well as Wexford, is very picturesquely situated 
on the Slaney, which is navigable by barges a long way inland. 
It has a i^ojiulation of over 7,000. 

Respecting the other towns of this county? 

Ferns ranks as an episcopal city, though, in population, a 
mere village. It is situated north of Enniscorthy, on the 
Bann, a tributary of the Slaney. Gorey, still more north, 
numbers 4,400 people. Ivillinick, Clonmines and Fethard are 
all maratime villages in the barony of Forth, which barony is 



[147] 

socially one of tho most peculiar in Ireland. Here is, nnd Las 
been for many gencrutioDS, ii rural population with n strange 
dialect and ancient British manners and customs. Greenore 
Point, Carnsoro Point and Hook Head are -svell known capes in 
this soutliern section. Duncan non Fort, in the last named 
promontory, is a military sti'onghold, commanding Waterford 
Haven; and off the others are the dreaded Tuscar and Salteo 
liocks, visited by shoals of crabs and lobsters. Here also is 
Bannow Bay, so desolate at the grave of the "Irish Herciila- 
neum." (p. 40.) 



CIIAPrER LXX. — ICILTvEXNY". 

Looking on the map, I see Kilkenny lies between AVcxford 
and Tipperary ) and looking at your statistical tables, I notice 
it has 92 and one-fifth per cent of cultivatable land, leaving 
only 7 and four-fifths per cent waste, and that in this very im- 
portant respect it is before every other countj^ in the Kingdom^ 
except one. I know, also, that it abounds in peculiar coal and 
marble. In what other way is this county distinguished ? 

In its history and in possessing the largest and most import- 
ant inland city in Ireland. The county, or rather the diocese 
of Kilkenny, coi*responds to the ancient Ossory. Kilkenny 
city is located in the centre of the county, on the banks 
of the Nore, which are here joined by beautiful bridges 
of marble. The city consists of two parts which, before 
the Union, were so distinct, that they had separate munic- 
ipal governmentvS and separate parliamentary representation 
Irishtown, or the ancient borough of St. Canice, having had 
peculiar privileges. The population of both, in '51, was 19,953, 
which appears to be less than that of a half a century ago. — 
The town mainly consists of a dozen principal streets, half of 
which are important business thoroughfai-es. Between its 
modern and ancient buildings, the latter consisting of a round 
tower, the castle, the cathedral, and many grand abhey ru- 
ins, Kilkenny is one of the prettiest inland cities in the three 
Kingdoms. Three peculiar natural privileges of this locality 
are said to be, "fire without smoke, water without mud, and 



[148] 

air without clouds."^ This city is blessed with many educa- 
tional cstablisliments — a famous grammar-school, a Catholic 
college, an archaeological society, whose "transactions" are 
regularly published in the book-form, a literary society, a dioce- 
san library, a district national model-school, w-ith manjMiiale and 
female seminaries, private and public. Industrially, it was a prin- 
cipal seat of the woolen trade, before the Legislative Unioni 
and was well known for its tine blankets. Though having 
fallen in this respect, it is still a place of some manufactures, 
carding implements, iron works, marble works, carriages, 
leather, starch, &c., employing here many hands. 

Respecting the history of Kilkenny, wdiat are its points 
of interest beside those already spoken of in your histori- 
cal sketch? 

This has been the seat of the celebrated Butler family, to 
which it is indebted for its modern importance. Its many 
venerable and splendid ruins, indeed, testify to its ancient 
status long before the arrival of that family in Ireland, it hav- 
ing been the see of the bishops of Ossor3'and is still. So early 
as 137G we are told it afforded the luxuries of the table as well 
as any town in Europe. In 1539 Piers Butler, Earl of Or- 
mond, and his lady brought artificers from Flanders to Kil- 
kenn}^ ; and about the same time was ibunded, by the same pa- 
tronizin gpair, the celebrated "Kilkenny College, ' which thus, 
in point of time, ranks before that of !Maynooth, and even the 
Dublin University founded by Queen Elizabeth. This eminent 
grammar-school educated Stanihurst, Baldwin, Prior, Berkeley, 
Harris, Congreve, Swift, Earquahar, and otlier great intellects 
know^n to history. Several bishops of Kilkenny have also been 
distinguished in letters, in particular. Bale, ]loth, and De Burgo, 
(Burke) ; while of the rest the CoUectania Hihernirana says, "two 
were lords justices, four lords chancellors, three lords treasurers, 
one an ambassador, two became archbishops and one chancellor 
of the exchequer." Parliaments have been held in Kilkenu}', 
from which date many grave statutes no longer to be loved 
or dreaded. The town suffered greatly from the convulsion 



■•■■The antipodes of Cincinnati, where the water is half mud and the 
quality or quantity of the fire gives the property to the air, of showering 
lamp-black. One, even one, drop of pure water we have not tasted and 
could not get to taste while here, now ten months ! 



[149 1 

of 1641. The next year, Oct. 24th, the Confederation met 
and assumed that defiant attitude, military and Icgishitivc, al- 
ready spoken of (p. 05.) In '45 the tiery Rinuneini arrived 
from Rome with munitions of war; and the following year 
Cromwell came before the walls. His summons to surrender 
was answered with defiance and, except at Clonmel, he expe- 
rienced hero the greatest resistance he met with in Ireland. — 
He is said to have saluted the garrison, when marching out 
as " brave fellows." Cl3nin and Banim and the late Dr. Cane 
belong to Kilkenny. 

What other towns in this county deserve our notice? 

In the south, Thomastown, Callan, Knocktopher, Gowran, 
and Inistiogue ; in the north, Castlecoraer, Ball^'ragget, Fi'esh- 
ford, and Urlingford. These are all small places under the 
population figure, three thousand. At Knocktopher is a Cath- 
olic college, and near Thomastown was born the philosoj^her of 
whom Pope snys — 

"To Berkeley, every virtue under heaven." 
This town was also named Baliymacandan, both terms said 
to be derived from Thomas Fitzanthon}^ of the 12th century. 
It has not quite 2,000 inhabitants ; but Callan has about 2,400. 
This last place suffered with others by Cromwell's visit to 
Kilkenny. It is situated on the King's Eiver, a tributary of 
the Nore. Castlecomer, on another affluent of the same main 
stream, is an industrious and tliriving place, consisting of one 
good street lined by trees, with several small clean ones, and 
depending chiefly on the collieries adjacent. Near Freshford 
is the celebrated spa of Ballyspellan. The other places are 
mere villages. 



CHAPTER LXXI. — WICKLOW. 

I have already learned that Wicklow is distinguished for 
its scenery (pp. 46. 47), and for being the most elevated, but 
one, of the Irish countieSi 

Its inhabitants also are noticed for their beauty ; the Im- 
perial Gazetteer, of Edinburgh, fancies they have " Roman 
profiles," and I can vouch myself for their polished manners 
and civility. It is a pit}', therefore, that this county has the 



[150] 

thinnest population of any in the island, only 127 to the 
square milo, which is not half that of Louth and only a third 
that of Armagh. Wicklow is also singular in the geological 
respect of being the only county in Ireland without lime- 
stone, or, if it has any, with so small a quantity as to leave 
it still singular in this respect. 

I suspect the encroachment of its mountains upon the ara- 
ble area, accounts for its thin population ? 

You are right ; it has over 200,000 acres of waste land, 
much the greater portion of which is irreclaimable moun- 
tain, leaving only about as much more to sustain animal ex- 
istence. This county is the only one in Leinster with a mural 
coast, if we overlook the Hill of Ilowth, and a few other iso- 
lated points. 

Being maratimc, has AYicklow any large port? 

It has not ; it is singularh^ deficient in this respect, its 
harbors being all shallow. Nor has it anj'- larger town-popu- 
lation than 3,400. The capital is Wicklow, a pretty place, as 
every place in this county is, but it wants about two hundred 
of that figure. Arklow, more south, and Bray, more north, 
the former near the confines of Wexford, the latter of Dublin, 
and both surrounded with the most lovely scenery, are the 
only other maratime towns of any note in this county. 
Arklow has the largest number of inhabitants. Bray is, 
rather deficient in water, and, like AVicklow, its southern ap- 
proach from the sea is pointed out by a very bold, toAver- 
ing point, Bi-ay Head, almost hanging over the water. That 
of Wicklow, however, is much the grander object, rendered 
more conspicuous by a lighthouse on its top. More south 
are the coast caves of Mizcvi Head, another bold point. 

Name the inland towns and point out the principal. 

Blessington in the north, a modern town, dating from the 
days of primate Boyle, has some manufactures, and gives her 
nom de j^^ume to a well-known lady writer. Baltinglas (ac- 
cording to Mr. Beauford, Boal-tinne-glas — "fire of Beal's 
mysteries " ) is a very old town, j)ossessing still some traces 
of its ancient importance, in times of paganism, as a place 
of fire-worship. Newtown-Mount-Ivcnned3^ Carnew, Tin- 
nehely, Enniskerry, Donard, Dclgany, Rathdrum, Aughrim^ 
Dunlaven, Hollywood, Shillelagh (p. 40) and Stratford are 



[151] 

the remaining to»vns and villages of any note. The fam- 
ous John Sacrohosco, Avhoso nativity is claimed by Ireland, 
Scotland, and other nations, is generally allowed to have been 
from Iloll^^wood, in this county. Stratford dates from the 
last century and is one of the youngest towns in Irehind. 



CHATTER LXXII. — KING S COUNTY. 

Of the next division what is the situation, extent and pop- 
ulation ? 

King's county with Queen's countj'', the ancient territory 
of the O'Mores, Fitzpatricks, O'Brennans, O'Carrols, O'Demp- 
83's, O'Dunns, Delan3's, Molloys, &c., dates, as a shire of the 
Pale, from the middle of the IGth century, when Mary and 
her husband, Philip of Spain, wielded the English sceptre, in 
honor of whom, these two territories were dubbed, for the first 
time, with their present names, and their then intended cap- 
itals were christened, respectively, Phili])9town and Mary- 
borough, This county corresponds to the ancient Ophal}^, 
covers 772 square miles and is peopled by 145 to the square. 
It is 45 miles long with a very various breadth, has some 
very large j^atches of the bog of Allen and some coarse up- 
land along the] Slieve Bloom plateau, which here disturbs 
the great Pl;iin for many miles and forms, for some distance 
the natural boundary between this and the Queen's on the 
South. 

Please to point nie out the chief towns ? 

They are Tullamore, Birr and Philipstown. The last 
named is only a village in population, having been under a 
thousand at the last census. Tullamore is the capital, though 
the number of its inhabitants is less than that of Birr, whoso 
situation is not sufficiently central for county pui'poses. — 
Tullamore, on the Brosna ("bundle of sticks,") is advanta- 
geousl}^ situated in about the centre of the county, and con- 
tiguous to the Grand Canal which crosses the province from 
Dublin to the Shannon. It is a very stirring ^inland town 
of about 5,000 souls. Birr on the little Brosna has fully 
6,000, and is remarkable as the residence of Lord Eoss, whose 
observatory and wondi'ous telescope are the greatest attrac- 



L152] 

tion which this locality possesses. This telescope throws 
that of Hcrscholl far into the shade, and is the greatest cu- 
riosity of its kind the world has yet seeu. The poet Frazer, 
better known by his nom de plume "J. de Jean," was a na- 
tive of this place, and Henry Brooks, author of "Grustavus 
Vassa," "The fool of Quality," &c., also belongs to the King's 
Countj', 

Are these the onl}'" notable places hereabout ? 

Banagher, Shinrone, Killeigh, Cloghan, CLara, Eden-derry, 
and Frankford are the best of the remaining villages. Kil- 
leigh was once the site of several religious houses; and 
Clonmacnoise, in the north-west extremity of this county, on 
the left bank of the Shannon, was a city of the first relig- 
ious importance. Its monastic property caused it to be re- 
peatedly plundered by Danes and English; for instance, in 
the year 1200 by the latter under Meyler Fitzhenry, an 
illegitimate son of Henrjr I, and then Lord Justice! The 
ruins of "Seven Churches" by which designation this place 
as well as Grlendalough is now known, still identify Cluain- 
mac-nois ("retirement of chieftains' sons"); for this was a regal 
cenieteiy, and here, among other chieftains, was interred, 
in 1198, the last monarch, Eoderick O'Connor, after a long 
monastic retirement at Cong. Nine years after, his reliques 
were taken up and enshrined. The "Annals of Clonmac- 
noise" was one of the ancient chronicles of the kingdom. 
This place adjoins the County Westmeath to whicii it belonged 
previous to 1638, when it was transferred w4th 300 acres to 
the barony of Garry Castle in this count}-. Historically, it 
dates from the middle of the 6th centurj-, when it was 
founded by St. Kiaran. 



CHAPTER LXXIir. — WESTMEATH. 

Has the next county any distinguishing characteristic? 

Westmeath has the lake feature so rare in this province, 
its water surfiico covering 22,427 acres, w^hich constitute 4.94 
per cent, of its entire area. It has several hills, but none 
deserving to be called mountains; some of them are entirely 
cultivated, while others, more elevated, afford excellent pas- 
ture. There are also several bogs in this district, but, on 



[153] 

the whole, it is a rich, undulating, well watered territory of 
708^ square miles.-^^ 

Please to nanie the larger lakes of this county? 

Loughs Dereveragh, Ennel, Owel, Iron, Lean, Foyle, Inny 
and Banean-Annagh, with about one-fourth of Lough Ree 
— all amounting, including streams and small loughs, to 35 
square miles. 

Has Westmcath any sizable town? 

It has. MuUingar, the capital, situated conveniently about 
the centre of the county and advantageously on the Eoyal 
Canal and Great Western Railway, which crosses the country 
almost from sea to sea, has a population of 11,500. It is 
a noted 2)lace, being the greatest wool mart in the kingdom, 
and, as a fair town, second only to Ballinasloe. 

Any other town of imjjortance in this county? 

Athlone is a historic place. It is situated on both banks of 
the Shannon and, therefore, belongs to two counties and two 
provinces. Both sections had a population in '51 of G,218. 
Athlone has some woolen and linen manufactures, breweries 
and distilleries, is accessible by the Shannon navigation from 
the north and the south, and is the first military inland depot 
in Ireland. 

You have referred to its history, I will thank you to be 
more explicit. 

Being situated as described, Athlone commands two prov- 
inces, and was, for a long period, the gi*eat highway over the 
Shannon. The English early noticed this central position and 
made it the seat of the Conuaught Presidency, the castle in 
which the presidents resided being in the Conuaught section 
of the town. Here in the great rebellion of 1641, which 
nearly destroyed Athlone, the then president was besieged by 
the Irish foi'ces under Sir James Dillon for twenty-two weeks, 
no j)ower that the Pale possessed having been able to 
relieve the besieged till reinforcements came from England. 
The same year, however, the English soldiers jilundered the 
convent of Bethlehem, near Athlone, compelling the nuns to 
fly with their lives through the country. But, that night, 

* Blackie is mistaken in saying 678, as a child may determine by divi- 
ding the acreage already given from the governmental survey ( p. (53, ) 
by 640. 



[154] 

intoxicated with the spoils of Ballinecloffv, the convont-sackers 
were cut to ))ieces by a party of Irish stripped to their shirts, 
the better to execute their vengeance. The following year 
Dillon returned to Athlonc, compelled the garrison, though 
reinforced by two regiments, to ask a truce, and, notwithstand- 
ing the fact just recorded, himself escorted the English 
ladies of Lord Jianelagh safe from harm, to Trim. But the 
most memorable siege of Athlone was that of 1691, when 
the Irish were on the defensive, and made this noted ])ass, 
by feats of individual heroism, the Thcrmojn'lw of the Rev- 
olution. They were beaten, however, and fell back in good 
order on Aughrim. 

Any other important towns in Westmeath? 

No other, unless Ave regard as such Kilbeggan, with 1,500 
inhabitants, and Castlepollard Avith a smaller number. Moat, 
Poure, Multifarnham, Kinnegad, Collinstown, Killucan, Bally- 
nahown, Lissoy, (Auburn,) Finnca, Kilkenny-West and Street, 
are all small communities. Foure, or Fore, is said to have 
been once a considerable place, socially and educationally, as 
the name implies. Multifarnham is identified by Sir Henry 
Piers as the spot where the "fatal Rebellion [of '41], Avhich 
broke out with such fury on the English, was hatched and 
contrived." Street is remarkable as being the first street 
in Ireland, or anywhere else, of which wo have any knowl- 
edge, that has been lighted Avith peat or turf gas. (p. 22.) 
And Lissoy is identified as the celebrated Auburn of Gold- 
smith, the "loveliest A'illagc of the plain." It is situated 
picturesquely on the eastern shore of the spacious Lough 
Roe, about half Avay between Athlone and BallynahoAvn. 

"Sweet, smiling village! loveliest of the lawn, 
Thy sports are fled and all thy charms withdrawn ; 
Amidst thy bowers the tyrant hand is seen, 
And desolation saddens all thy green! 
And trembling, shrinking from the spoiler's hand, 
Far, far away thy children leave the land !' 

What ancient families possessed this district? 

Chiefly, the Magheogans, O'Melaghlins, O'Maloncs, Mac- 
Gawly's, MacCaroons, Foxes, and the O'Briens of Brawny, 
among Avhom settled the Dillons, Daltons, Pettys, and other 



[ 155 1 

Anglo-Norman families. One of the Magheogans is the 
translator of the Book of Clonmacnois, and another, residing 
at Paris, has given our own times a most erudite ilistor}' of 
Ireland. The Dillons and Daltons (D'Alton) have become as 
Irish as the Irish themselves. 



CHAPTER LXXIV. — QUEEN S COUNTY. 

IIovv is (^neen Mary's County situated? 

Between King's County and Kilkenny, Tipperarj' and 
Kildare, the first being north of it, and the last east. Before 
that lady's time its was called Leix, and owned principally 
by the O'Mores. "If the baronies of Portnahinch, Tinahinch 
and Upper Ossory bo taken from the Queen's County, the 
rest will be Leix." Boauford and Ledwidge, the antiquari- 
ans, were natives of the Queen's County. 

Has this county any peculiar physical characteristic? 

So ver}' unlike the district last spoken of, this has the 
smallest water surface of any county in the country, exce])t 
Dublin; that is, only about two-thirds of a square mile. Yet 
it has several streams and Avithin it the Barrow and the 
Xore have their n\ain sources in the Slieve Blo<»m Moun- 
tains. 

What is the extent and what the population of the <^hicen"s 
County? 

CG4: square miles, each inhabited b}' 212 on the average. 
The county has some bogs and heaths, is level in the centre 
but hilly towards the extremities, yet its arable is quintu])le 
its waste surface, the latter being half that of the King's 
County. Iron, copper, and other minerals are known to ex- 
ist in the Hills of Dj-sart, which, like the neighboring hills 
of Castlecomcr in Kilkenny, yield annually' large supplies of 
coal. Cheese is another ])roduction of this county, and man- 
factures have been long carried on in its chief towns. 

Please to name the chief towns? 

They are Maryborough, Portarlington, Mountmellick, IMouut- 
rath, Borris-in -Ossory and Abbeylcix. The first-named is 
central and looked upon as the county-town, though ])os- 
scssing now barely 3,000 inhabitants. It is, however, a stir- 



[15C] 

ring place, with a good market square and som.e county 
buildings. Portarlington on the Barrow and Mountmellick 
on tlie Ownas, an affluent of that river, luive the advantages 
of canal and railway as well as of river, and are very act- 
ive towns. The former is represented in parliament, and the 
latter numbers about 4,000 j^eople. Mountrath is a small 
place, yet carries on some cotton and woolen manufactures 
and has a flourishing monastic grammar-school. 

I will trouble you now merely to name the larger villages. 

They are Aghadroe, Stradbally, Ballinakill, Durrow, Eath- 
dawny, Eosenallis, JVlount-Oliver, Snugboro' and Summer Hill. 
The Kock of J)unamase (Dun-na-maes — " fort of the plain ") 
is a very bold object, not unlike the Rock of Cashel, and 
has been a fortress from time immemorial. It was the res- 
idence of the hereditary chief, the O'More; and I am sur- 
prised to learn, that this place and the "adjacent territory 
ranked as an English palatinate under Marshall Earl of Pem- 
broke, in the 13th centuiy." The villages of Aghadroe and 
iSletty were once episcopal cities; and Gabhran, another roj'al 
residence belonging to the princes of Ossory, was also in 
this county. 



CHAPTER LXXV. — KTLDARE. 

I see by the map that Kildaro is the most central county 
in Leinster, and am already aware it is almost a perfect flat. 

Consequently, it has no mountain wastes and is before 
twenty-five counties in respect to tillage ; but it has much 
bog and, altogether, 51,000 acres of waste land. Its popula- 
tion is only 146 souls to each square mile of 654. 

I suspect then it has no large towns? 

A ver}- just inference : no town in the county had a great- 
er population, in '51, than 3,000. Some of them, however, 
teem with historic associations and were once of much more 
importance than now\ Kildaro (Coill-darragh — "wood-of- 
oaks ") is the chief town and ranks as an episcopal city. 
Its hoary ruins and sombre, if not solemn, aspect attest its 
antiquity. Here is one of the highest of the round towers, 
and near the town is the well-known Curragh — the term 



[157] 

perhaps traceable to the Latin imperative r?<rr^, "run." 
Pray what may be the extent of this course? 
4,858 acres, vested in tlic crown, and lying north-east of the 
town, on the left side of the Great Southern Eaijroad as 
you proceed from Dublin. April, June, September and Oc- 
tober are the i"acin«^ seasons. 

What other place in this count}^ calls for remark? 
ISTaas is also a ver}^ ancient place, the Tara of Leinster, 
where the provincial princes and bi-ehons held their annual 
assemblies. "It is remarkable," says the curious Yalancy, 
"that the ancient arms of the town are two serpents and 
that 7iahas in Hebrew should, also, be a serpent." Athy 
and Monastereven are towns of the same present standing. 
At Mullaghmast, near Athy, a cruel slaughter of natives was 
perpetrated in the 16th century. Maynooth is a village of 
much ix!}x>rt, owing to the annual debates in the British 
parliament respecting the state endowment of the celebrated 
Koman Catholic College of St. Patrick which is here. The 
old government grant to this seminary was £8,000, Avhich 
the late Sir Eobert Peel, when prime minister, caused to be 
raised to its present respectable figure of £iiO,000 (^144,000) 
per annum. 

Is not this endowment creditable to the British Government? 
The British government had enacted the penal code, which 
prohibited Catholic education in Ireland; to obtain this educa- 
tion the priests and gentry had to go to France and other 
countries ; Finance and the other countries were England's 
bitterest enon)ies for generations; bitter enemies of England 
these priests and gentlemen returned ; and, so, to prevent 
this uncontemplated effect of an unwise as well as an unjust 
policj', by keeping the leaders of the people from imbibing 
"French notions " on the continent, this catholic college was 
founded by the Irish parliament in 1795! 

AV^hat other towns hereabout deserve notice ? 
Castle- Dcrmot was once a place of consequence and a regal 
residence. Here was first tried the "charter-house" experi- 
ment — a government educational project of the last century 
specially intended for Irish Catholic children, by which 
they were to be supported, lodged, clothed and then put to 
trades, but wholly severed from their natural guardians and 



[158] 

f might In the Prof e>>tant faith!''' New-bridge, though a village 
"with only one good street, is a large cavalry depot and 
has a new Catholic college, beautifully situated on the banks 
of the Liffey and the chief ornament of the place. Celbridge 
before the Union was a manufacturing place of much activity. 

An}' thing further, historical or biogra))hical ? 

Since the English invasion this county has been the home 
of the Fitzgeralds, dukes of Leinster and earls of Kildare, 
but previously belonged chiefly to the O'Beirnes and O'Tooles. 
The famous St. Bridget belonged to this county, where 
she lived and died, but her shrine was removed to Down- 
patrick to be with that of the Irish apostle. 

CHAPTER LXXVI. — LONGFORD. 

We approach now a gi-oup of small counties, the smallesl; 
in the country of which Longford is one. 

And its waste surface occupies a full quarter of it. It lias 
some lakes, several bogs, and stony uplands, but much level, 
good soil, which supports 196 individuals to every square mile. 
This is the most central county in Ireland, and is, therefore, 
favorably situated towards each of the four provinces. It has 
canal and rail communication with the chief towns, and com- 
mands the Shannon navigation. It owns a largo section of 
Lough Ree on the south, and has a good sheet of water in 
the north, Lough Gowny, which is over five miles in length. — 
This county corresponds to, but is not identical with, the an- 
cient Annaly of which the O'Ferals were the chiefs, 

I will thank you to pass ra])idly thi-ough the chief towns, 
if no larger than those last spoken of? 

Longford town on the Cromlin, willi a population between 
four and five thousand is, and deserves to be, the capital. Its 
main street, winding on a gentle slope, has a business and 
respectable appearance. Near the town is one of the defunct 
charter- schools just spoken of Granard, Edgeworthstown, 
Newtown-Eorbcs and Ballymahon are the principal other 
places. 

* As a proselytizing agent the Charter-House sj'stem was a failure from' 
the first, and was ultimately abandoned by government upon the exposure of 
its machinery and i-esults by John Howard, the prison philanthropist. 



[159] 

I understand Miss Edgeworth Avas an Irish lady? 

Her family has given name to Edgeworthstown, in which 
she was born ; and the family of Forbes has got a lake, a 
castle and a town, in this quarter, so designated. The former 
of these two places is also remarkable on account of its church 
spire, "which can be raised and lowered in 18 minutes" by ma- 
chinery within it! Here is a special school for the sons of clergy- 
men, perhaps the only one so circumscribed in the Kingdom- 
Granard is a very ancient place, having been the residence of 
the chiefs of Teffia, a section of Annal}'. The moat of 
Grenard is a curious elevation crowned with a Danish fort, 
and commanding a large horizon. Ballymahon on the Inny, 
as it goes into Lough Ree, is picturesquely situated and has 
large cattle-fairs. Saint Johnston, Killasheo and Barry are 
small villages. Ardagh gives name to a diocese which occu- 
pies parts of three provinces. 



CHAPTER LXXVII. — DUBLIN. 

Omitting the meti'opolis, for the present, what is the pop- 
ulation of the county Dublin? 

So high as 41 G to the square mile, the densest of all. This 
multiplied by 354, the number of square miles in this divis- 
ion, gives near 148,000 people to the rural county. 

Does it follow that this must bo a rich, arable soil, en- 
croached on hy no mountains, bogs or lakes, or that some of the 
people draw their supplies from the capital and distant places? 

Yery likely, both. This county has no water-waste, not 
having a single lake worth naming ; but it has some hills 
in the south, where it is thumped hy the granite knuckles 
of Wicklow, which, for a few miles, look serious as moun- 
tains. All the rest of the county is level, arable, and well 
laid out. Respecting distant supplies, this district is full of 
gentlemen's seats, many of which are supported by profes- 
sional services rendei-ed the capital, and by rents from that 
and other parts of the country. Though only thirty-two 
miles long, this little shire has seventy miles of coast and 
here is another source of sj^plies — fisher}', commerce, and 
sca-bathin£r. 



IGO] 



CHAPTER LXXVIir. — DUBLIN CITY. 



What place does the metropolis of Ireland hold among the 
capitals of Europe ? 

With all geographers and tourists, to speak of it is to 
praise it, for the number and beauty of its public buildings 
and its natural adjuncts in the way of scenery. The gentle 
Liffc}', the rugged Dodder, the Horse-shoe Bay, and tower- 
ing Ben Hodar, the deep-green woods of Fingall, the cre- 
scents strands, villas, and plantations of Clontarf, Sandy- 
mount, Black Eock, Kingstown, and Dalkey, the approaches 
by Donybrook, Rathmines, Harold's Cross, Dolphon's Barn, 
Kilmainham, the Phoenix Park, Phibsborough, the Strawberry 
banging-gardens, and, in the back ground, the Sugar Loaves, 
coasts, glens, streams, woods, and waterfalls of Wicklow — all 
framing a centre-piece in full consonance with this gorgeous 
setting! 

I will thank you, then, to describe the centre-piece? 

The city is cut into two nearly equal parts, by the river 
Liffey, which here flows nearly due east, and is escorted into 
the bay by two splendid quays, with breast-works, flagged 
walks, and deep facings of cut granite, towards the water, 
during their w4iole length which is the full diameter of the 
town. Along those sj)acious quays are several fine buildings, 
shops, stores, and private houses, their fronts facing each 
other, and the river, while the great domes of the Custom 
House, and the Four Courts, with more than one church-spire, 
tower grandly over the whole. The persj^ective is greatly 
heightened by the forest of masts in the harbor, and sev- 
eral beautiful bridges, iu jiarticular, Carlisle, Essex, King's 
and the "Metal Bridge," the last being a single iron span, 
all in nearly a perfect straight line, the deviation being a 
gentle curve. This arrangement is far more classic than that 
of London, where the Strand, Tcmplebar and other jjrincipal 
streets have their backs to the Thames; and than that of 
Liverpool, whei'e long lines of docks, and high "dead" Avails 
shut out the quays and the Mersey which, besides, has not 
there, a single bridge. 

Please now describe cither half of Dublin sejmrately? 



[101] 

On the right brink of the Liffcy is the older and, perhaps, 
more extended section of the cit}'. It may be regarded as 
consisting- of two distinct parts — ancient Dubbn, and the 
modern aristocratic quarter around Trinity College. The 
former is low in situation, low in appearance and comfort- 
here are very many poor i^treots and some squalid bade 
lanes. St. Patrick's Cathedral is almost the only relieving 
building in this very ancient locality. Yet, this was once 
the scene of much industrial activity and consequent comfort, 
before Dublin fell as a manufacturing city, the weavers of the 
Liberty having been a numerous, a privileged and an influ- 
ential class. All the rest of southern Dublin is beautiful, 
consisting of a great number of private streets, five squares, 
some excellent business thoroughfares and many noble pieces 
of arcliitecture. Stephen's Green is one of the largest squares 
in Europe; and College Green, with Dame street, a business 
thoroughfare and promenade hard to be paralleled, in the 
magnitude and beauty of the public buildings which grace 
it. These are the Bank, the University, Dublin Castle, and 
the Eoyal Exchange, -with tlic Chamber of Commerce, the 
fine equestrian statue of William III, and the Moore Monu- 
ment contiguous. The Castle comprehends many buildings 
including a little architectural gem in the shape of a church 
and is, itself, a ponderous pile. The University buildings 
are still more extensive, constituting almost a town in them- 
selves ; and the Bank, formerly the Parliament House, has 
been favorably compared with the first specimens of archi- 
tecture on the continent. * Grafton-street, another fashionable 
resort and rich business street, is contiguous. At this side 
of the Lifi^e}', also, are the Dublin society, the Eoyal Irish 
Academy, the College of Surgeons, the Catholic University, 
the Industrial Museum, two Cathedrals, two Theatres, Porto- 
bello Gardens, Cit}' Mansion House, Corn Exchange, Com- 
mercial Buildings, the Dublin and Marsh's Libraries, one 
magnificent railway terminus, several equestrian monuments, 
with a great number of very fine hospitals, churches, pri- 
vate mansions and other buildings. 

Come, now, if you ]»lease, to the other half of the city. 

On the left of the Lifi^e}" rises the northern division, up a 
gentle acclivity. One of the most spacious and splendid 
20 



[162] 

business streets in Europe, is here, in which a dozen tandems 
might drive abreast, its whole length, were it not for Nel- 
son's Pillar, a Doric column of great height, upon which 
stands a gigantic eflfigy of the hero, and which is right in 
the centre, flanked on either side by two fine structures, the 
General Post-office and the new Palace-mart. This is Sack- 
ville street, and measures about a quarter of a mile in a straight 
line from Carlisle Bridge to the Rotunda Gardens. In this half 
of the city are very select private streets, two aristocratic 
squares, several beautiful new churches, in particular, St. 
George's, Phibsborough, and the Catholic Cathedral, the Na- 
tional Model Schools, two pretty railway termini, the Custom 
House, Four Courts, the "Temple," Linen Hall, Eoyal Bar- 
racks, Newgate, Hibernian Academ}', the Phoenix Park, (con- 
taining the Viceregal Lodge, the Zoological Gardens, the Wel- 
lington Monument, and other buildings,) with the suburbs of 
Clontarf and Glasnevin, at which last place, are the Botanic 
Gardens, the National Agricultural Model School, and the most 
beautiful cemetery in Leinster, where O'Connell, Ciirran, Fra- 
zer, and other intellects repose. Here is the appropriate na- 
tional monument to the Liberator, from a design by Petrie — a 
round tower of, I think, cut granite, white as limestone, and 
rising in naked isolation to the maximuni height of the glo- 
rious old 25J"ototypes. 



CHAPTER LXXTX. — SOCIAL FEATURES OE DUBLIN. 

I fancy I have now some idea of the phj'sical distribution 
of this city, but I desire to know, also, something of its other 
features, as a metropolis, institutional, commercial, and histo- 
rical ? 

The principal institutions have been named, and the names 
of most of them are sufficient!}' indicative of their natures and 
objects. A prominent, indeed, the most prominent social fea- 
ture of this city is its medical and other charities. Several 
of its citizens, in times gone b}^, have pinned their names to its 
history by bequests, which bless thousands. Marsh, Molyneux, 
Usher, Swift, Stephens, Moss, Denny, Mercer, Smyth, Madden, 
Prior, Simpson, Osborne, Southwell, O'Connell, arc but a few of 



[163] 

the names written through the city in the big letters of the trow- 
el. It is right to observe, also, that many of these foundations 
receive annual grants from the public exchequer, for instance, 
the Dublin Society, the Eoyal Irish Academy, the Museum of 
Irish Industry, the Hibernian Academy, the hospitals, and, of 
course, the National System of Education. The state endow- 
ment to this last alone, exceeds a million per annum of our 
money. 

I consider this very creditable to the government. 

So it is, as respects this last item; but the individual subsidy 
from this quarter to each of the others is very trifling, if not 
paltry. And it has to be observed, that nearly all those chai-i • 
ties, except the last, were founded in the last century, when 
Dublin had two houses of legislature, which filled the city 
with gentlemen of wealth, who greatlj' aided these establifli- 
ments, but who are now compelled to reside in London, Mdicre 
they have other concerns. And as it is a notorious fact, that 
the extinction of that legislature was effected by purchase, in 
plain terms, bribery, under the plausible show of respect for 
vested interests, fifteen and twenty thousand pounds sterling 
having been a common price for a single vote in favor of that 
measure, these charities were also vested interests which camo 
into that disastrous and shameful bargain. 

What are the objects of the Royal Dublin Society? 

The application of scientific principles to industrial pursuits — 
an idea which it was the first public body in Europe to start 
and to realize. Samuel Madden Avas the principal originator o^ 
this society in 1731, It has quite revolutionized the countiy 
bj^ the perseverance of its agency, the great learning of its 
professors and its bounties to farmers, dairymen, manufacturers, 
breeders of live-stock and inventors.* It occupies Lcinstei" 
House, the former palace of the Dukes of Leinster, situated in 
Merrion -square and Kildare-street, and where, under its guid- 
ance, the great exhibition of '53 became a fact in the history 
of Europe. To this institution belongs the Zoological Gardens 
in the Park, and the Botanic Grardens at Glasnevin. This is :i 
very wealthy corporation. 

*And here let. me acknowledge, with gratitude, my own obligations to this 
institution, as an associate member of it, without any pecuniary condition, for 
three years, while studying for this publication. 



[IGi] 

What arc the objects of the Koyal Irish Academy? 

Irish antiquities, the elucidation of Irish history, pure sci- 
ence and literature. This is a very learned body, holding a 
respectable place among the scientific and literary corporations 
of Europe. Since the foundation of this society, seventy -three 
years ago, it has amassed a collection of Irish curiosities of 
every kind, which is esteemed one of the most valuable national 
museums belonging to the continent. The members take the 
initials — " M. E. I. A." after their names; and no degree con- 
ferred by a university is more coveted by scholars, native and 
foreign, than these four characters. As a corporation, how- 
ever, it is not rich; and the government annual assistance of 
£500 is considered, in no sense, commensurate with the status 
and responsibilities of the institution. 

There are a few more of those institutions whose objects 
I can not collect from their names. 

The Hibernian Academy is exclusively devoted to the fine 
arts — drawing, painting, statuary and architecture. Its house 
is in Abbey-street, on the north side, where its annual exhibi- 
tion in these four departments takes place. The Museum of 
Irish Industry is located in Stephen's Green, south of the Liffey, 
and is very similar in its objects to the Dublin society. It 
is the youngest of all tliese establishments, being an off-shoot 
of the Irish exhibition and, therefore, dating "from 1853. Its 
government grant is £3,00(). Of the liospitals, that named the 
Old Man's is the "Irish Chelsea," an asylum for superannuated 
and disabled soldiei's. Besides these, there is a great number 
of voluntary societies, litcraiy, scientific, musical, artistic and 
charitable. 

Commercial!}', what is the standing of the Irish capital? 

Through all vicissitudes, the wine ti\ade of Dublin has kept 
up a respectable position; but with the decline of its woolen, 
cotton and linen manufactures, since the death of the Irish par- 
liament, its general trade has greatly fallen off. In 1851 Dub- 
lin had 41 registered steamers, Cork 21, Belfast 9, Waterford 20. 
In the same 3'ear, the chief ports, stood thus in respect to sailing 
vessels registered as belonging to each : 

NUMHER. TONNAGE. NI'MHER. TONNAGE. 

Belfast 452 75.G4S- | Waterford KiH 10,.')4f) 

Dublin 402 204,.S79 Limerick 101 13,221 

Cork 3'Jl 45,9ia | 

■•■""The "77,000" at page ICO includes the steam touuage. 



[165] 

The shipping tonnage of steam and sailing- vessels which en- 
tered, and cleared out of, the three principal ports, that year' 
in the home trade, Vv-as : 

ENTERED. CLEARKD nuT. ENTERED. ('LEAIIED (H.T. 

Dnljlin 781,137 6U,(i32 I Belfast 505.620 351,379 

Curk 119,487 l'J3,2U | 

In the /orei'i7w, including the colonial trade, Cork did a great- 
er business than Belfast, and Dublin than either, in that year, 
the only year for which I have got any returns. 

Has Dublin produced any great men? 

Very many. The Stanihursts, Usher, Ware, Denham, Dod- 
well, Molyneux, Tate, Annesley, Swift, Parnell, Burke, Barry, 
Madden, Molloy, G-rattan, Moore, and more than one of the 
Sheridans, are only a few of the eminent men born in the Irish 
metropolis. 



CHAPTER LXXX. — CARLOW. 

Please now come to Carlo w and let me know its position? 
The second -smallest county in Ireland is crushed between 
five others, in the south of Leinster. Nevertheless, it has 
communication with the sea by means of the Barrow naviga- 
tion, which separates it from Kilkenny for some miles. It is 
parted from Wexford, on the east, by mount Leinster and the 
Blackstairs, a local chain rising, at its northern extremity, to 
2,604- feet and forming, at its southern end, an acute angle with 
the river, Avhere the county terminates in a point. Elsewhere, 
the boundary lines are less natural and less regular, encroach- 
ing not a little on Wicklow and giving the county somewhat 
the outline of a triangle. 

AYhat other natural features has Carlow? 

Some small hakes, is well watered by rivers, has an undula- 
ting and varied surface, much sweet scenery, a rich soil, mar- 
ble and slate, is a great butter-producing county, and su2)ports 
197 persons to each of its 346 square miles. 

What families have held this county ? 

The Cavanaghs, Ryans, MacMoroughs, Cai-ews, Cooks, Bag- 
nals, &c. 

Has this locality any large towns ? 

The capital Carlow, (Catherloch — "city on the lough/') so 



[ i»c ] 

called from an adjoining lake, gives name to the county and is 
nn important town of over 9,000 souls. It is pleasantly and 
profitably situated on the Barrow and the Burren, consists of 
two principal cross-streets, with a dozen others, has some good 
buildings, in particular, the fine old Castle, the lunatic asylum^ 
niJirket-house, cathedral and Catholic college, whose examina- 
tions are recognized in the London University. Before the 
l^nion the woolen manufacture was carried on here, and still 
it is the scene of flour-mills, breweries, malting houses, &c. 

What other tovvns hereabout deserve a visit? 

Old Leighlin, Tullow, Hackettstown, Bagualstown, Borris, 
Eathmilly, Leighlin Bridge, Staplestown, and St. Mullins — to 
which last-named place the tide-way of Waterford Haven 
comes all the way up — are the principal other places in this 
county. Old Leighlin, also, on the Barrow, was, anciently, a 
very celebrated city, and up to the present century sent two 
members to the Irish parliament. The third initial of the 
celebrated "J. K. L,," (John Kildare and Leighlin,) is that of 
tliis town, or rather diocese, over which he, (Doctor Doyle,) 
]n-esided, as bishop. Tullow, of all these, has the largest popu- 
lation, 3,000. 



CHAPTER LXXXI. — LOUTH. 

What may be the length and breadth of the smallest coun- 
ty in Ireland? 

The breadth is various, the maximum being about half the 
length, and the length about 30 miles. Louth is the most 
northern of the Leinster counties, and is the centre of a very 
fertile section of the country, comprehending the counties of 
Meath, Monaghan, Armagh and one-half of Cavan. A chain 
of elevated hills runs along the northern confines of Louth, 
from Carlingford Lough towards Monaghan, and with this ex- 
ception, the country is comparatively level. 

Which is the capital of this county? 

Drogheda, situated in the extreme south, at the mouth of 
the Boyne, and in a pretty steep valley, so steep, indeed, that 
vessels in full sail pass in and out, under the new railway 
viaduct though, on the ground level of the surrounding coun- 



[107] 

try. This viaduct is the great highway to Belfast and the 
north, and jumps the Boyne here, almost over the town, with 
a magnificent span. Drogheda has the appearance of, and 
really is, an old town. It has several ancient ruins and a great 
number of narrow, unsightly back streets. Yet the main 
thoroughfares show many fine j^rivate and business houses. — 
Here are several good seminaries, including one first-class 
grammar-school, churches, flour and cotton mills, iron-works, 
tanneries, breweries, ship-building, soap-making, &c. Drogh- 
eda has a population of 17,000. 

Commercially, what is the tonnage of this port? 

The steam and shipping tonnage Avhich entered Drogheda 
in '51 exceeded, by a fraction, 84,000 of the former, and 50,- 
000 of the latter; while the total aggi*egate of 118,700 tons 
cleared out — all in the cross-channel and coast trade, the 
foreign business of this port, in that year, being unimport- 
ant. A line of six steamers belonging to this town ply- reg- 
ularly between it and Liverpool. 

Has not Drogheda some bloody associations ? (p. 95.) 

Perhaps one of the most cold-blooded slaughters on record 
is that to which you refer. Cromwell having come before the 
town and been refused admittance, pummelled the walls for 
three days; at last, having effected an entrance which was 
bravely resisted Avhile there was hope, he ordered no quarter, 
and the very women and children who fled to the church, 
were skivered by his butchers in the sanctuary ! A few years 
before this, Drogheda having been garrisoned by the English, 
was repeatedly attacked by the Irish forces, with various suc- 
cess ; and you are already aware that the battle of the Boyne 
decided the succession to the British throne in the vicinity of 
this town. Near it, also, are the ruins of the famous Mellifont 
Abbey, for whose exclusive and peculiar regulations, objects 
and history consult Lanigan or AVare. 

Anything further in the same direction ? 

A great deal, which would take us too far. I must, there- 
fore, be content with referring you to the interesting history 
of Drogheda, by John Dalton. Jones, the poet. Mills, the mu- 
sician, and Malpas, who slew King EdAvard Bruce, at Dundalk, 
in 1317, were natives of Drogheda. 

Is not Dundalk, too, in the county of Louth? 



[1G8] 

It is, and a !sea-])(U't of coiisideraLle business. Four steam- 
ers, belonging to this place, arc daily engaged in the Liverpool 
trade. This is a great cattle outlet and grain market. Swine 
are also disposed of here in large numbers. Sev.eral tanneries, 
two distilleries, Avitli breweries, a large iron founder}'^, emplo}'- 
iiig a good number of hands, steam-saAV-mills, flour mills, rope 
walks, and other extensive branches of industry flourish here. 
Some idea of the commercial increase of this port maybe de- 
rived from the fact, that between 1834 and '48 its custom duties 
rose from £4,460 to 44.398. The export of agricultural pro- 
duce alone, omitting all kinds of live-stock, exceeded 23,000 
tons annually from this one outlet, and now, that the number 
of steamers has been increased from two to four, this trade is 
probably doubled. -i^ 

In other respects what kind of a town is this? 

Very straggling. To go and return th« full length of one 
long sti'eet, commencing above the jail and terminating below 
tl\e cavalry barracks is quite a journey, and diverging from 
this, at a right angle, is another long thoroughfare crossing the 
Castletown river. This latter is the principal street, and is a 
scene of much animation on market days. Here are some 
good shops, a spacious market-square, having the town-hall 
and court-house at opposite sides, the latter a new and pretty 
building. This town is blessed with many fine seminaries, in 
particular, Lord Roden's grammar-school, "the Institution," 
and the convent school. A fiishionable promenade here, is the 
Park, a well -wooded and once a tastefully laid oiit domain, go- 
ing now fast to decay. One of its covered walks is wanting 
only in length, to be equal to the Mardyke at Cork. The new 
(.'atholic church of Dundaik is the greatest ornament, in the 
way of building, which the town i^ossesses, the windows of 
this beautiful temple, all of costly stained glass, are the cred- 
itable gifts of a few private individuals. 

Historically, what can be said of Duiulalk? 

It is a very ancient town, and the stamp of antiquity is upon 



*Two rival steam-packet companies in this town have waged a suicidal 
war for years, to the great benefit of others. Tlie consequent low freightage 
has attracted a very extensive trade to this place, very much to the injury 
ut' Drogheda and Newry. Fancy passengers taken by excellent steamers to 
Liverpool, 130 miles, for 3d — G cents ! 



Lico] 

it. One of tbo most romantic episodes in liistory, is tlio bat- 
tle of Dundalk, a naval engagement between the Irisb of Mun- 
ster and the Danes, characterized by miracles of individual he- 
roism, which made the day disastrous to the latter. 

What other towns are in this county? 

Ardee, ("hill on the Dee,") Louth, Castlebellingliam, Carling- 
ford, Dunleer, Castletown, Collon and the little rustic watering 
l^lace of Blackrock, are the best known. The first-mentioned 
takes its name from the river which laves it; Carlingford con- 
fers its appellation on the beautiful and excellent oj'ster-yield- 
ing inlet between Down and Louth; there is a second Castle- 
town in this county, in the vicinity of Dundalk, pointed out 
by the "ivy-girt turrets" of a splendid old feudal castle, which 
is still inhabited.-'^ 



CON NAUGHT. 



ClIArTER LXXXII. — CONDITION AND HISTORY. 



^Respecting the western province, I am already informed to 
a considerable degree, (p. 53 &c.) Its broken and romantic 
coast, its many lakes, mountains and bogs, its wild scener}^ and 
comparatively small arable surface, need not occupy us a sec- 
ond time. Proceed, then, to its social state. 



■■■ A remnant of tlie by-gone state of Ireland is furnished by this locality, 
at the present hour. The proprietor and occupier of this castle, a little, old, 
worthless creature, is here ensconced, surrounded by high walls, and guard- 
ed night and day by a special police depot located at his gate, from Avhich 
he commands an escort wherever he goes. Having incurred the hostility of 
the peasantry, he, some time ago, received a severe pounding, for which, I 
learn, two men have been hanged, and this standing police expense is im- 
posed on the agricultural class, to which they belonged. When I visited 
this castle, towards the close of '57, I had to be escorted through the grounds 
by one of the guards, from whom I have the fact, and who further testified to 
the miserly habits, in relation to themselves, of the old ward. 



[170] 

Blackie lias summarily dealt with that, in these words, — "The 
Irish language is still prevalent in this province, and so are 
poverty and ignorance" — a statement which shows that writer 
to be more reckless in assertion, so tangent to notorious fact, 
than I had supposed his position and opportunities would per- 
mit. The language which is here associated with povei'ty and 
ignorance, inferentially as cause and effect, was the universal 
vernacular of a country, which, in the time of Bede, flowed 
with "milk and honey," in the time of Cambrensis, abounded 
in vegetable and animal superfluities, and in the words of 
Mosheim, was the "mother of modern learning;" which, still 
earlier, supported the best seminaries in Europe for the gratu- 
itous feeding, clothing and educating of this writer's own coun- 
trymen, at "Mayo of the Saxons," Lismore, Mellifont and 
other places, as testified by all cotemporaneous historians of 
Europe. This was the vernacular of that "vast train of phil- 
osoj^hers," spoken of by Philip of Auxerre, as inundating 
France in the ninth century, as, also, of those who preceded 
them, all over the south and west of the continent, between 
that and the sixth. It was the language of a country, rich 
enough to tempt the Danes, and strong enougn to expel them ; 
of a nation plundered by this writer's own countrymen, in 
all the moods and tenses of spoliation. A language, to speak 
which, was to be self-convicted "of a skin" — a "mere Irish- 
man," who might be robbed statutabh=^, without moral guilt 
or legal responsibility. Thus, in a sense which Blackie did 
not contemplate, his words under notice, are historically and 
literally true — their very truth proving his ignorance of 
Irish history, or his want of candor ! Driven from the rich 
plains of Leinster, and the beautiful valleys of eastern Ulster, 
and Munster, the native owners of those districts had to fly 
to the highlands of the west, leaving, in the words of the 
weighty McCuUugh, "nine-tenths" of Ireland to be forfeited 
by Cromwell and William. Such is the malapert connexion 
established by this writer between language and social con- 
dition, as shown in Anglo-Irish history ; while the relation 
of the former to "ignorance," as resj^ects Ireland, admits of 
this further explanation — that school-teaching by an Irish 
Catholic, male or female, lay or clerical, was one of the most 
determined pi'oscriptions of the penal code for generations! 



[1711 

Knocking a man down and then kicking liim for falling, 
may look rational enough in the farce, but it is too serious 
a joke to be defended now-a-days with Mr. Blackie's synthetic 
earnestness. 

I have learned that the O'Briens and MacCarthys governed 
Munster; the O'Neills and O'Donnels, Ulster; theMacMurraghs^ 
Leinster; but what ftimilies ruled Connaught, about the period 
of the English Invasion ? 

The O'Connors; and the ancient capital, was Croghan, now 
an obscure place in the county of Roscommon. At the close of 
the 12th century, this province was formally invaded by Wil- 
liam Fitz-Adelm de Burgo (William Burke) a profligate Anglo- 
Norman adventurer who, unfortunately, was aided by native 
allies. They laid waste most of the country, plundering mon- 
asteries, convents and other places within their reach pos- 
sessed of wealth. The annals of the Four Masters place this 
event under the date of 1201, and further add, that when all 
was over and the usurpers taking their rest at Cong, the na- 
tives rose up and slew 900 of them. In four years after, the 
same William Burke laid waste the province, sparing no place 
however sacred ; but this time it happened worse with him, for 
he died horribly, in the words of the chronicle — "His entrails 
and fundamentals fell from their place and trailed the earth 
after him !" This statement accords with his character, as 
drawn by his own friends. Cambrensis, the English histori- 
an of the day, and one of the invaders himself, who knew 
De Burgo well, calls him — "semper latens anguis in herba; 
vir in facie liberalis et leins, intus vero plus aloes quam mel- 
lis habens ; cujus hodie venerator, eras ejusdem spoliator, ex- 
istens vel delator; vir dolosus, blandus, meticulosus; vir vino 
i^enerique datus. Et quanquam auri cupidans, et curialiter am- 
bitiosus " — a snake in the grass, a fellow with a sweet face but 
a sour heart, to-day pious, to-morrow the same despoiler and 
trickster, a bland, deceitful coward, prone to wine and women, av- 
aricious and ambitious — a pretty agent to execute the bull of 
Adrian the Fourth, given to Henry II for the moral reforma- 
tion of the Irish peojile and the glory of the church ! 

What is the present population of Connaught? 



[ 172 ] 

A few thousand over a million, being a frightful reduction 
on that of 1841 : — 

'41 ; 1,418,859 

'51 1,010,211 

Fallen off 408,648 

Thus it appears, that in ten years nearly a third of this 

province has been depopulated ! 

Please name the divisions of this jDrovince in the order of 

size? 

Galway, Mayo, Eoscommon, Sligo and Leitrim. Two of these 

are the largest counties in Ireland, after Coi'k, You are already 

aware, that the capital of the province is Galway town. 



CHAPTER LXXXIII. — GALWAY. 

"What length and breadth has the second -largest of the Irish 
counties, whose broad characteristics I am ah-eady informed 
of (p. 18,&c.) 

A journey exceeding ninety miles, in a straight line, may 
be performed within the limits of Galway, whose maximum 
breadth is about 57. It is a ver}' fine territory, taking it 
"all in all," its water, bogs and rocks being extensively com- 
pensated for, by nearly three quarters of a million of arable 
acres. It has no mountain higher than 2,400 feet, the eleva- 
tion of Binabola in the north-west. It yields flesh-colored, 
statuary and other marbles, and is known to possess the use- 
ful metals. Salmon is largel}^ exported from the lakes, the 
short stream from Lough Corrib* alone yielding so much as 
ten tons of salmon annual!}^. The sea fisheries off the coast 
are divided into two districts, extending over 217 miles coast- 



* " Lough Corrib, the third Lii-gest lake in Ireland ! " — Blackie. The new 
Imperial Gazetteer of the World has fallen into a great number of little mis- 
takes, such as this, in relation to a country only a few hours sail from where 
it has been written and published. Here, in the backAvoods of America, where 
reliable works of reference on Ireland are the rarest of rarae avum, mistakes 
are not only unavoidable but undetectable, and we therefore trust, our 
readers will not expect more from us, under such disadvantages, than the 
Avorld could get from Blackie with all the fine libraries of Scotland at his 
elbow. 



I 173] 

wise, and employing, in 1850, 833 vessels giving emplojnnent) 
to 3,G00 hands — scarcely a third, however, of the number en- 
gaged in the same way five years before! . 

What is the population of this large county? 

In '51 only 322,000 nearly, being 131 to each of 2,447 square 
miles, depending chiefl}' on agriculture. There is, however, 
some manufacturing industry in and around the chief town ; 
and substantial home-made wearables employ a few hands in 
the rui*al districts. 

Any other social feature of this district? 

All through the west of Ireland, great numbers of the poor- 
er classes go bare -foot, six days in the week, and many who do 
wear " brogues " do not wear stockings, while some make a 
compromise by the use of "traheens." Brogues are strong- 
shoes made for heavy wear, but far removed, in pliability and 
appearance, from the barbarous wooden clogs which keep up 
such an infernal rattle on English pavements, especially in 
Lancashire; traheena are stocking legs which have lost their 
stocking feet. Feet and legs untrammeled by ligatures have 
elicited admiration, in these parts, from more than one tourist. 
Sir Francis Head thinks they are in consonance with surround- 
ing circumstances ; and was particularly struck with the beau- 
ty- of a maiden, whom he saw tripping the dewy lawns with the 
prettiest ankles in the world ! More peculiar to tliis district 
however, is the favorite color, which so conspicuously distin- 
guishes the simple female costume of the West, no other coun- 
ty having any thing more characteristic than the red petticoats 
of Galway. 

What ancient families claimed territorial sway in this section 
of the province ? 

Chieily the O'Flahertys, in conjunction with the Lj'nches,-'^ 



*Tlie common noun, "lynch-law," and the transitive verb, "to lynch," are 
thus derived. A mayor of Galway, named Lynch, a member of this respec- 
table family, which lias been rooted in this territoi'y from time immemoi-ial, 
had a sou wlio committed himself, by some wicked youthful frolic to the laws 
of which his father happened to be just then a super-scrupulous and much 
dreaded executor. Found guilty, the young culprit stood before his parent 
for sentence, and all expected the icy justice of the judge would now melt in 
the burning feelings of the father. Notso! The culpi'it must be hanged; and 
hanged he was, by his own father's band, out of a front window in his own 
house, the doors locked to ju-event a meditated rescue ))y tlie astonished pop- 
ulace! 



[174] 

O'Shaghnessys, 0'Dal3's, O'Kellys, O'llallarans, Kirwans, Mad- 
dens, O'Mailys, Blakes, &e., among whom settled the Burkes, 
(De Burgos) Birminghams, Browns, Frenches, Skerrets and 
others. 

What is the state of education here ? 

Very much improved. The hedge-school* has given place 
to the respectable national seminary. In 1850 over seventeen 
thousand children attended 134 of these state establishments, 
within this one county, not speaking at all of private, propri- 
etary or denominational schools, of which there are a good 
many in this locality. 

What class of town is the capital of this province? 

One of over 24,000 people. Gal way, like Belfast, is one of 
the few jjlaces in Ireland whose population did not fall be- 
tween 18-11 and 51, that of Galwa}' having risen, within the ten 
years, more than 7,000; yet the population of the county has 
decreased to the extent of one-hundred thousand, in the same 
interval ! And within the last twelve months, no town in Ire- 
land or, perhaps. Great Britain has exceeded itself in commcr. 
cial progress to any thing like the degree which has distin- 
guished the sudden rise of this ])ort during the 3'ear. This is 
now a ijrincipal trans-Atlantic packet station, owing to the 
spirited enterprise of one gentleman, Mr. Lever. Taking ad- 
vantage of the sujierior natural advantages of this port, as re- 
spects American trade and intercourse, this gentleman has 
latel}'" run a line of first-class steamers hence to Newfoundland 
and New York, Avhich has already attracted to Galway a large 
trade and diverted from Liverpool jDcrhaps the more respecta- 
ble class of American emigrants. This new state of things 
completely obsoletes the commercial data of '51, already quoted 
from, as far as they apply to this port. 

Anything further respecting this important town ? 

Its Spanish origin is stamped upon it. Here are some good 
new buildings, including that of the Queen's College, several 
first-class seminaries, churches, convents, monasteries, reading- 
rooms, tan-yards, flour-mills, distilleries, with other incipient 



* So called since the days of religious intolerance, when no person pro- 
fessing the Catholic religion was permitted to keep a school in Ireland, and 
snatches of book-knowledge were to be had, by the vast mass of the people 
only covertly under a hedge, in out-houses or some such unsuspected place. 



[175] 

branches of industiy now to the place, because springing from 
its new commercial life. To help this rapid development the 
present government of Lord Derby has generously advanced a 
liberal sum to improve the harbor, which possesses a good line 
of quays and is now being connected Avith Lough Corrib by a 
spacious canal. 

Which is the next most important town in this county? 

The city of Tuani with a present population of 8,000. It is 
the archiepiscopal see of the jJi'ovince and has been such, since 
the middle of the 12th century, (p. 143,) but dates as a bish- 
opric since the days of St. Jarlath, in the 6th. Since 1839, how- 
ever, its primatial authority has fallen to the latter rank, in the 
Established Church, in obedience to Lord Stanly's (now Lord 
Derby's,) act of retrenchment. A stranger in Tuam looking on 
its religious and educational foundations, in j)articular the 
Catholic Cathedral and the College of St. Jarlath, must feel at 
once that he is in a place of no small ecclesiastical importance. 
The present archbishop, Doctor MacHale, is a writer of consid- 
erable reputation and of some political notoriety. . 

What other towns of note belong to Galway? 

Ballinasloe is remarkable for the great national fair which 
is annually held here, in the fall of the year, and which lasts 
five or six days successively. It is one of the most extensively 
attended live-stock markets belonging to the continent, attract- 
ing, as it does, buyers from all parts of great Britain, as well as 
Ireland, and not a few from France and other European na- 
tions. From 7,000 to 14,000 horned cattle, from 60,000 to 
90,000 sheep, and a large supply of fine horses are annually 
disposed of here, in one week. Here, also, is the great annual 
July wool -market. The pojjulation of Ballinasloe is six and a 
half thousand. 

Please to point out the location of this town ? 

There it is, in nearly the latitude of Galway town, and lon- 
gitude of Cork Harbor, (east) on the Suck, a few miles above 
its disemboguement in the Shannon, with which it is navigably 
connected by canal. Agricultural and horticultural societies, 
tiour-mills, tan -yards, lime-burning, hat-making and some oth- 
er manufactures exist here. Here, too, is the lunatic asjdum 
not " for the province of Connaught," as Blackie mentions, but 



[1-01 

for its southern half, the northern being very well provided 
for by the excellent asylum at Sligo. 

Any other places of consideration in this county ? 

Gort and Portumna in the south, Dunraore and Castle-Blak- 
eny in the north, Aughrim, Loughx*ea, Athenry and Eyrecourt 
between, with Clifden in the extreme west. Near Gort and 
Eyrecourt, respectively, are the episcopal villages of Kilmac- 
duagli and Clonfert. Aughrim is remarkable for the great Ja- 
cobite and Williamite struggle of July 12th, 1691, in which 
St. Ruth, the Irish commander-in-chief, was killed, (p. 07.) — 
Of all these, Gort and Loughrea (so named from an adjoining 
lake,) have much the largest populations, the respective num- 
bers being 5,000 and 4,000. A great many villages fill up the 
intermediate districts. 



CHAPTER LXXXIV. MAYO. 

"What is the most distinctive physical feature of ]\Iayo? 

Its waste surface. 

I apprehend, then, it can not have a dense population ? 

Right; its 2,131 square miles have onl}^ 129 souls eacii — the 
most scattered population in the land, after that of Wicklow. — 
One is puzzled to say whether lakes, bogs or mountains most 
predominate in this romantic and beautifull}' wild tei'ritory. — 
Lough Conn alone, is nine miles long, by a maximum breadth 
of three, and the greater part of the more spacious Lough 
Mask is within this county. The rest of this lake belongs to 
Galway and has a subterranean outlet, through the isthmus of 
Cong, into Lough Corrib, but will soon have a superterranean 
connexion by the new canal. Thus the heart of the prov- 
ince will shortlj' bo open to the commerce of Galway Bay! 
Altogether, within a few acres of 57,000 are covered with wa- 
ter in this single county. 

What is the lai'gest town-population in Maj'o? 

Not quite 7,000 at the last counting. Ballina comes nearest 
to this and is a thriving little port at the mouth of the Moy- 
the largest river in the province, (p. 35,) abundantly stored 
with Salmon and navigable up to the quay by vessels carrying 
200 tons. This river peninsulates fully one-half of the county. 
Castlebar, more central, is looked on as the chief town, though 



[177] 

haviiii,^ only u few over 4,000 inhabitants. It was taken in "98 
liy a small Fi-ench force -which came to assist the Eebcllion,but 
wliich was overthrown at Coloony. in Slio-o, immediately after. 
Ever since it has been a principal military station. 

Are these the onl}' towns of note in Mayo? 

No. Westport and Kewiiort on Clew Bay, Ballinrobe on the 
Eobe, near Lou<j;h Mask, Balla^-haderreen near Lough Garai 
Swineford and Foxford more. central, and Killala in the nortli, 
are places of some importance. Westport is the cajntal of the 
west, and most charmingly situated on one of the most pic- 
turesque bays in the world, (j). 57.) The hundreds of islands 
in Clew Bay have the same geological feature as tlu» sand esk- 
ers inland; and it is rather remarkable, that no shells have l>eon 
found cither in these islands or these little hills, though of 
limestone gravel. Wosti)ort is one of the three tishery dis- 
tricts of Mayo, Belmullet and Killala being the other two. — 
'i'lie .Mullet is a strangely chiseled ])eninsula, hanging to the 
coast by a hair of land in wliich this little tishing village is 
located. Killala gives imme to a bishopric and to the spacious 
bay upon which it is situated, but of which Ballina is the move 
important port. John Jjynch, Archdeacon of Killala, in the 
17th century, is the celebrated author of '■Camhren.sU J'Jcersu.s.' 

What em))loyment is afforded by the tisheries of ^Layo ? 

About the same as that of Gal way, and the lijien industry 
employs some hands in a few of those places. The mines of 
this metalliferous rci'ion are yet undeveloped ; amylhists and 
other crystals are met with in Achill (■'eagle'"} Island, and 
black marble near Westport. 

This island being the largest off the Irish coast, (p. 3G * I 
wish to know its pi-ecise area? 

or),2S:> acres or 55 square miles. 

Anything more respecting this county? 

In common with Galway and, indeed, all ('onnaught, Mayo 
abounds in ancient religious ruins, Druidical as well as Chris- 
tian. Near Lough Conn w'as the ancient city of Mayo (ilagh- 
ui— -'tield on the w^ater," or, according to Colgan, Mageo — -tield 
of the oaks"*} from Avliich, it appears, the county has taken its 



* We have never aeeii a complete topo.^raphical etymology of Ii-eland, and 
liave followed Mr. Beauford,of the Collectanea, in most of tlie derivati.iiis 
•riven, omittiuo- all which look far-fetched or .speculative. 

21 



[178] 

name, and wliere St. Coleman, in the 7th century, founded the 
celebrated school for British youth, in which, we are told, the 
Great Alfred of England was educated. Of the many old ab- 
boj's of Mayo, that of Ballintober, near Lough Mask, is still 
an object of high interest. Cong, (" capital") situated in the 
isthmus, between Loughs Corrib and Mask, was anciently a 
city of much celebrity and once regarded as capital of the 
])rovincc, but is now an obscure village. Roderick O'Connor, 
last native king of Ireland, died here, in 1198, (p. 152.) The 
" Cross of Cong," a polished steel or fine wrought-iron relique 
of this place, in almost perfect preservation, is a wonder of ar- 
tistic skill and manipulation, for the middle ages. It stands 
from one to two feet high, apparently all solid steel, profusely 
covered Avith complex ornamentation, consisting of figures in 
fine hair-line tracery, engraven in the hard metal. . The curious 
ma}^ see it in the Museum of the Roj'al Irish Academy, Dublin, 
the <i-em of tluit valuable collection. 



CHAPTER LXXXV. ROSCOMMON. 

How is ]voscommon situated? 

Mostl}^ between the Shannon and ilie Suck ; tiic former lav- 
ing its whole lengtli and separating it, on the cast, froni four 
counties, the latter parting it from Galway, on the west. This 
is the oniy non-maratime county in Connaught. 

Has it an3^ very distinct natural features? 

It is the flattest and most fertile county in the province. — 
Though not half the extent of Mayo, it has nearly as mucdi ar- 
al)!e land, some of which is as deep and rich as any soil in 
]\reath, Tippor:uy or Limerick. It is well watered witli rivers 
and lakes, and though having no mountains deserving the 
name, its landscape is far from being monotonous. Like Tip- 
perary, in fin-mer days, Roscommon is much occupied in pas- 
ture; and like that county again, it possesses coal, potter's 
earth, and pipe-clay. Iron ore is also found in Roscom- 
mon, (p. 75.) This was the ancient patrimony of the O'Con- 
nors, Kings of Connaught, under whom held the O'Hanlys, 
O'Flanegans, MacDermots or Mulronys, O'Doncllans, &c. 

"What is the population of this county? 

182 to tlie square mile, and that of its largest town docs not 



[ 179 ] 

come up to 4,000, "all out." Eoscommon ("Coman'a marsh") 
is looked on as the chief town, being central and giving 
name to the county, though having only a few over 3,000 
people. Boyle, in the north, has four hundred more, hand- 
somely located on a stream between two lakes, Key and 
Gara. 

It may be sufficient, then, merely to name the other townlets 
in this county? 

Elphin is a bishopric, but the town is small. Castlereagh, 
Tulsk, Strokestown, Ballintober and Lanesl)orough are the 
principal other places; yet each, under the population figure, 
2,000. Near Elphin is Eath-Crayhan, corresponding to the 
ancient Drom-Druid, tlie Croghan of the O'Connors, where the 
states of Connaught used to assemble for public business. — 
Parts of Carrick-on-Shannon and Athlone are on the right 
bank of the Shannon and, therefore, in this county. The lit- 
tle island of Inniscloghran and the little peninsula of Ein- 
down, both in Lough Eee, are historic spots. In the former 
the celebrated Meave, queen of Connaught, was slain by her 
own nephew; and in the latter, De Courcy and the other Eng- 
lish invaders took refuge, after their great overthrow at Kil- 
macduagh, but out of which few escaped, besides this giant. 
Extensive remnants of fortiiications still mark this tooth of 
land. 



CHAPTER LXXXYI. — SLIUO. 

I am already informed that Sligo is mountainous, has some 
beautiful lakes, a highly varied landscape, and that it contains 
near half a million of acres, about 68 per cent of which is ara- 
ble. What else in the same line? 

Its mines and fisheries are rich, but not sufficiently devel- 
oped. The latter employed 575 vessels and about 3,000 men 
and boys, nine years ago; what its present state is, I can not 
say. The population of the county was 128,510, at the same 
time, giving 178 to each square mile. 

Are there many good towns in this county ? 

Only one — Sligo, with an active population of about 12,000. 

This is the second town and port in Connaught. At the date 
of our returns, 28 sailing vessels and 1 steamer belonged to this 



[180] 

port, but their united tonnage barely come np to 5,000. Yet^ 
Avithin the 3'ear, 40,000 ship-tonnage entered the harbor and 
H0,0()0 cicai-ed out, all in tl^e coast trade of the two islands; the 
foreign trade of the port, that year, sent in 17,000 and took out 
9,000 tons more. But since 1851 Sligo has greatly advanced 
as a port; the harbor has been deepened, the quays extended 
and new steamers have entered into the service of its trade. 

In other respects, what class of town is Sligo? 

Its streets are very irregular, crossing each other without 
much regard to ])arallelism. Some of them, however, are stir- 
ring business thorougiifares, having many respectable shops. — 
The Pound and its vicinity, which is the highest part of the 
town naturally, is tl>e lowest socially, being quite an exception 
to the general appearance of the place. The county bridewell 
here, is quite a model institution, being more of a work-house 
than a jail, having well-furnished seats for shoemakers, benches 
lor carpenters, forges for smiths, washing, ironing and sewing 
accommodations fur females, and suitable apparatus for other 
].»ursuits. The new lunatic asylum and the convent of the sis- 
ters of charity ar(^ ornaments to the town ; but the (.^atholic 
jKirish ehurcli is out of keeping with the other buildings of 
the ])lac('. Several beautiful promenades surround Sligo, in 
particuhu', tiie charming grounds of llaselwood. 

How far is Sligo from the metrojiolis ? 

About ir>() miles, and o54, by water, from Liverpool, with 
whieh it principally trades. Not yet open to any railway, 
nearer than Enniskillen and Longford Sligo is sociallv isolated 
from the i)rinci])al tov.ns of the conntry; perhaps, this fact 
has something to do with the unhapp}' sectarian feeling which 
runs so high here, and embitters the politics of the place. — 
Four news})apers"-'- :n'e ])ublishc(l in Siign. The chaimum 
of the town h<)lds the rank of Mayor. 

Any other toAvn worth naming in this county? 

Bailymote, Ooloony, Ballysadai-c and Ballinafad are the best 
known, yet none of them, except the tirst-mentioned, numhers 
1,000 inhabitants. At Ballysadare, on the Dublin road, is a 



* One of these is siiuong tlie oldest in the couiitiy, but ap]iears to lie dying 
fa.st.; tlie youngest was brought, into existence l)y ihe writer of these lines, 
!i ep. 29, 18r,;1. 



I iSl ] 

pretty steep ledge of rocks, whicli tcrininatcs the soiilherii arm 
of Sligo Bay, and over which a stream tumbles into the inlet, 
forming an interesting cascade. A little to the west of Bally- 
mote is the episcopal village of Achoiiry. 



CUAPTER LXXXVir. LEITRI^r. 

We now come to the thirty-second and last eouniy in Ire- 
land, because the least in this province. 

Leitrim is long for its breadth, forming the north-eastern 
section of Connaught, and, consequently, the south-western 
boundary of Ulster. It touches the sea for a few miles, but 
has no harbor larger than a fishing creek, because rocky in 
that extremity. Though Leitrim has much coarse upland ;ind 
a good per-centage of water, it is before every county in this 
province, except Boscommon, in point of fertility, and is, jier- 
haps, first in respect to mineral I'csources : so Moore is geo- 
gra^jhically correct, in the line, 

'• The valley lay smiling/ before inc," 

for this Avas the historic Breff^'ne of the O'Korkes. The mod- 
ern count}^ contains 613 square miles, 'M of wliich ai-e oc<*u]iied 
by water. Population, precisely that of Sligo in proportion to 
extent. 

Has Leitrim any large towns? 

Not one. In this respect, it is the most backward county in 
Ireland. No town in Leitrim has more than 1',(J(I0 inhabi- 
tants. 

Well, such as thc^' are, name thoni. 

Carrick-on-Shannon, Leitrim, Manorhamilton, Mohill, .Drom- 
ahaire, Ballinamore, with a few still smaller villages. At Drom- 
ahaire, which is most handsomely situated on Lough (iill, i>4 a 
venerable old castle kept in excellent preservation by the alv 
sentee lord of the soil, George Lane Fox, M. P., an Engli.sh 
gentleman, whose agent, also an Englislur.an, resides iu it. 
This is identified us the historic castle of O'Rorke,* prince of 



■■■■It is not generally kuowii, that tlie Helen of Ireland was 40 ycai's 
of age, and the Irish Paris an old man of 00, at the time of this alxlnction \ 
The former died repentant, however, iu the Convent of Mellifont, County of 



[182] 

Brctfac, whoso notorious wife was the indirect, though imme- 
diate, cause of the English Invasion, (p. 93.) It stands on 
a rising ground, overlooking that beautiful lake, imbosomed 
in trees and bemantled with ivy. "The j)oet of all circles' 
has made the world familiar with these associations, in one 
of. the sweetest and best known of his inimitable melodies : — 
Thci'e was a time^ falsest of women ! 

When BrefFni's good sword would have sought 
That man, through a million of foemen, 

Who dar d but to doubt thee in thought ! 
While now — oh degenerate daughter, 

Of Erin, how fall'n is thy fame! 
And thro' ages of bondage and slaughter, 
Our country shall bleed for thy shame. 

Already, the curse is upon her, 

And stangers her valleys profane ! 
They come to divide — to dishonor. 

And tyrants they long will remain ! 
But, onward! — the green banner rearing, 

Go, flesh every sword to the hilt; 
On our side is Virtue and Erin! 

On theirs is the Saxon and Guilt. 



Louth. I do not say positively, that this is the identical castle, where 

" No lamp from tbe battlements burned," 
for the reason mentioned ; but I know it was pointed out as such to me, and 
I believe the people of the surrounding country have a tradition to that etfect- 
A new and handsome residence is built right up against the walls apparent- 
ly for the purpose of preserving the latter, which exhibit much evidence of 
careful stewardship. 



[183] 



BIOGRAPHY 



CHAPTER LXXXVllL — PAGAN CELEBRITIES. 

Lord Brougham has said — " The affairs of men, the history 
and interests of nations, the relative value of institutions, as 
discovered by their actual working, the merits of different sys- 
tems of policy, as tried by their effects, are all very imperfectly 
examined without a thorough knowledge of the individuals who 
administered the systems and presided over the management 
of the public concerns." I will thank you, then, to toll me a lit- 
tle more about those illustrious individuals, at whose homes we 
have glanced in our tour through the counties. 

With all my heart ; but let us be S3^stcmatic, by taking them 
in the instructive order of chronology. Authentic Irish bi- 
ography may be indisputably dated from the days of Crimthan, 
who is associated with the Roman general, Agricola, in the un- 
deniable page of Tacitus; that is, from the year 56, A. D. 

Has Irish history, then, no great name in war or govern- 
ment, religion or politics, science or literature, in short, an}^ 
way before this date ? 

Science and literature, as professions, were then confined to a 
very circumscribed section of the old world, which included 
no part of the north, middle, or west of Europe. Modern re- 
ligion was not then known in the same quarters; and pagan- 
ism, as a faith, has sent few names in any country down to 
our times. But war and government have been always 
developing individual character, in barbaric as well as civilized 
countries; and, therefore, I sec no good reason for refusing 
to admit the existence of 011am Fodhla, Kimbaoth, Ilugony' 
the Great, and other celebrities of the same class, respecting 
whom the native records say so much. 

What do they say of the first-named? 



[184] 

That there rose u]) in Irelaml, at a yvvy vnvly ]).eriod of 
its history, a Aviso and i;-reat kiiii;-, named Fodhla, whose pro- 
nominal designation, "Olhim" implies knowledge, and refers to 
tiiat organizing capacity for whieh he is famed. Civil govern- 
ment in Ireland appears to date i'rom this Lyeurgiis uf the 
west, Avhose time is generall}' fixed in tlie middle of the 8th 
century before Ciirist, and, therefore, not so remote, hy a hun- 
dred years, as that of the great Spartan law-giver. Kimbaoth 
si generally received as the ])or(er (jf authentic Irish history- 
Ilugony was anotiier constitution-maker, whose system of 
twenty-five territorial dependencies existed, with little alter- 
ation, for centuries, and would seem to be, even nuw. at the 
bottom of the present county arrangement. 
Jlespecting the other celebi-ities of this jjci-iod ! 
[ must refer you to Irish history, and hasten to those of our 
own times, in whoso Avorks we have something more than a 
mere sentimental interest. The four centuries from Crimthan 
to Logaire, first Christian king of IreUnul, which witnessed the 
fall of the Koman Empire, teem in tradition and bardic 
story, with feats of Celtic chivalry. Chuchulin and Oisiu 
were the Ulysses and Homer of this ])eriod ; but it is right to 
say, that Ireland's claim to these celebrities, is disputed by 
more than one country. Armagh, however, Avas the local cen- 
tre from which radiated the exploits of the IJed -Branch 
Knights, who Avere to Leath Conn what the Dalcassian heroes 
Avore to Leath Modha. That Crimthan led his forces into 
Britain to assist that countrj^ against the conquei'ing Koman 
legions, as attested in English history and by the Eoman his- 
torian, that Nial and Dathy subsequently carried their arms 
into the Roman provinces of J^ritain ami Caul, coming off 
Avith hosta2:es or <:-lor\% are sober historical facts which show 
that the bardic superstructure is not Avithout a corner stone. — 
(Jai'bury liiada has left his name till this hour on Dalriada,* in 
Noi'th Britain, Avherc he founded, in the third centurj', the Ar- 
gyl colony Avhich soon sprouted into that second kingdom of 
the Scotts. Fiedlim, by bis modification of the lex taUonis code, 
is said to baA^e taken a step in constitutional reform, Avhich 
Avas not knoAvn in England till the arrival, in the course of 



* Tliis Avas, also, the name of a large district in ULster. 



[ l>^-5 1 

seven Of oii^ht centuries, of lier (Ireat Allrcd. A still more 
illustrious name, in the same line, is Cormac Ultada, a lit- 
erarv monarch and la\v-_ii:ivcr, the <:;reatcst of all since Fodlila 
his lioyal Precepts, "Advice to Iviui^-s,'' are still extant. He 
founded colleges for the study of history, law, and war; and 
is thought, by some writers, to have been the author of that 
great curiosity on the Rock of Cashel named, till this day 
"King Connack's Chapel,'" (p. 113,) while others attribute it to 
the no less illustrious Cormac Mac Cuilleuan, who flourished 
several centuries later. The former died, about tlie close of the 
third century, in retirement, near Kells, having been obliged 
to abdicate the government, in consequence of the loss of an 
e^'c, the laws of the nation toh'rating no ]iersonal defect in 
the monarch. The famous hero, Fingall — Fin-Mac-Cundiah-' — 
was son in-law tothis Ulfada, whose grandfather was Conn of 
the Hundred Battles. For the ]'cst> any civil hit^tory of the 
country, treating on tliis ])eriod, gives nil, and, indeed, many 
UKM'c than legitimate biogra[)hy should recognize. 



CHArXEIl LXXXIX. SAINTS AND SACRED AVRITEKS. 

It appears, we now enter upon a distinct era of Irish biogra- 
phy ; for, in our forty-hfth dialogue, you sa}' "the countrv had 
attracted the notice and admiration of the known world l)v 
the number of its schools and monasteries, and the shoals of 
missionaries they sent forth over the west, centre, and south of 
Furope, and, even, into Asia ;" and then you refer to Nennius, 
Bede, 31osheim, Muratori, Canisius, the Bolandists, x\llemont, 
and other foreign historians as attesting your statement. 

Precisely so ; and avc how come to jtarticulars. According 
to the best authorities, every saint whose Latin or Irish name 
is given in the ibllowing catalogue, was a native of Ireland^ 
even where it happens that other countries reap the harvest 
of his labors, cherish his reliques and celebrate iiis festival. I 
believe most of these names are to be met with in the Roman 
Calendar, as those oi' canoni/.cd or beatified saints: — 



""•■ Pronounced Fiumacool. 



[186 ] 

Mansiiotus, first bishop of I.orrainc, died 105, A. ]). 

Ailbe of Emly (sec p. 114.) 

Ficch, bishop of Slotty, (Queen's Co.) 

Benignus died at Eomc, 4(;7 — Eeliqucs at Glastonbury. 

Sedulius, poet, orator — Baki names 24 of his works. 

Fridelinc, "the traveler," founded many monasteries. 

Cataldiis, apostle of Tarento, native of Munstcr. 

Cianan, bishop of Duleek. 

Bridget of Kildare, the virgin, born in Ulster, or Louth. 

Brogan of Ossory — his works translated by Colgan. 

Nimidus, "the Fair" — his latin hymns in Colgan. 

Dcrmod, of Inis-Clothran, an author, died 540. 

Finian, bishop of Clonard, Meath, 552. 

Kiaran, of Clonmacnoise, 549. (p. 152.) 

Jarlath, of Tuam, born in Down. 

Cogitosus, nephew of St. Bridget, wrote her "Life." 

Amergin, poet laureate, (another of this name.) 

Frigidian, apostle of Lucca, (Italy,) an Ulster prince. 

Brendan, founder of Clonfert, native of Kerry. 

Kuadan of Lothra (Munstcr) — 3 works. 

Congall, founder of Bangor and other colleges, 554. 

Columbkille, apostle of the Picts (p. 124,) — "Prophecies." 

Berchan, "the prophet," lived about 560. 

Eochaid, "the blind," — his M. S. in Marsh's Library, (Dub.) 

Canice, of Kilkenny, born in Ulster, died 599. 

Coleman, of Cloyne, (several saints of this name.) 

Kevin, of Glendalough, (read Griffin's "Cathaline.") 

Evin, of Eoss, (Colgan had his Avorks.) 

Molua, of Clonfert — his "Eule" valued by Greg. I. 

Munna, of Wexford, ") Principal champions in the great 

Lassarian, of Leighlin, '-Paschal controversy, Lassarian 

Coleman, of Mayo, .'talcing the Koman versus the 

Dagan, of Achad-Dagan- J Irish side. 

Columba — the city of San Columbano, Lodi, called after him. 

Coleman, of Dromore — Eule for Monks, and other writijigs. 

Murus, an O'Neill — The O'Neill's swore upon his crozicr. 

Cuan, ''the wise," bishop of Louth, died 824. 

Gall — the city of St. Gall, (Switzerland) called after him. 

Carthag, (Carthy) native of Kerry, 

Jonas, of Luxville, (Burgundy) — several biographies. 



[187] 

Livimis, one of the few Irish martyrs. 

Moling, "archbishop of Ferns!" — a "prophet," says Cani- 

brensis. 
Ultan MacConeubar died at Ardbraecan, 655. 
Segenc, of Eathlin Iskind — "Homilies," "Epistles," &c. 
Aidan, apostle of Northumbria, (Northumberland) England. 
Braccan of x\rd Braccan, (Mcath) — ^'Future Wars of Ireland." 
Camin, of Inis-Keltair (Shannon) — " Commentaries" — 65;->. 
Finan, converter of Mid-Angles and East-Angles,(England.) 
Fiacre — the French observe his festival, August 18th. 
Fursey, a Mvinster prince, martyred in Picardy G48 or '5 
Munchin, an eminent author and abbot. 
Arbogast, bishop of Strasburgh, (Germany) 646. 
Ailcran, regent of Clonai'd, (Meath) — several works. 
Cumin, of Connor, wrote a metrical treatise on Irish saints. 
Cumian, of Eoscrea, very learned, native of Tirconnel. 
Failbe, abbot of lona, (Scotland) — native of Donegal. 
Faran, ■\ These tliree, of one famil}", wrote a body of 
Boigalac. [-civil and cannon laws, named "Sacred judg- 
Moeltule. ) mcnts." 

Disidod, bishop of Dublin — religious writings. • 

Maildulpb — Malsbury (Mal-Dulfi-urbs) named froin him. 
Cuthbert, of Lindisfarne, (England) — sacred writings. 
Ivilian, apostle of Franconia, martyred July 8, 689. 
Theodore, a literary archprelatc. 
Adamnus, an eminent traveler, author and saint. 
Chaelian, a monk of Inis-Iveltair, and an author. 
Sedulius, the younger, bishop of Oreto, Spain, (p. 88.) 
Colman Vamach, " scribe of Armagh," died 724. 
Albuin, apostle of Upper Saxonj- where his festival is kept, 

October 26. 
Ermedus, bishop of Clogher, wrote " Life of St. Patrick." 
Virgil, an illustrious philosopher and divine, died 785, 
O'Duncchada, "the wise," professor at Clonraacnoise. 
Aengus, a very voluminous and learned ecclesiographcr. 
Fathadius, " de canonibus," a profound ecclesiastical jurist. 
Dicuil, a writer on Geography and Grammar. 
Albin, ) Placed by Charlamagne over his new universi- 
Clementj j tics of Pavia and Paris, respectively. 
Claud, a learned biblical commentator of this centur3^ 



[188] 

Diigul, u conti'oversial monk of 8t. Dennis, (Paris.) 
Doiuit, bishop of Fiesoie, Avrote in verse on Ireland. 
Andrew — his " life" i:)ublished by a Florentine ambassador- 
Findan, travelled, wrote, and died, 827, on the Ehine. 
Feidlemid, king of Munster, 840, a learned anchorite. 
Moeng-al govex'ned the schools of St. Gall. 
Patrick, bishop, writer, anchorite, died in England, 861. 
F^rigena ("son of Erin") — an intellectual giant, a prodigy. 
Macarius, thought the soul material — "De Statu Animae." 
MacMailchuvai, "most learned doctor of the Scotts," 
Buo and Ernulphus, "apostles of Iceland." 
MacCuillenan, bishop-king of Cashel, author of the ''Psalter.'' 
Probas, an ecclesiastical historian of rejjute. 
MacLiag, biographer of Boru — "Munster Book of Battles." 
Aed, a learned but eccentric teacher, 12th centuiy. 
Flan Manistree — historical works and poetrj. 
Marianus, "without comparison, the most learned of his age.'' 
Tigernac, a very reliable annalist. 

O'Brolcain, of Enishowen — "divers works," died 1086. 
Eraid, secretary' to Malachy, king of Ireland, wrote much. 
Oelsus, a theological writer, archbishoj? of Armagh. 
Malachy, such another. 

O'llcney, prelate of Cashel, a sacred writer. 
Sacrobosco — a name in every general biographical dictionary. 
Peter, "the Irishman," eminent teacher of Thomas Aquinas. 
Palmeran, of Meath, fellow of Sarbonue (France) — Exten- 
sive writings. 
O'Toole, archbishop of Dublin, who Ibught the English, 1172. 
Gotofred, a friar of Waterford, and distinguished linguist. 
Dun-Scotus, "the subtile doctor," such another as Erigena. 
O'Halloran, " Ocham," — profound learning, a "cardinal." 
Malachy, chaplain to Ed. II. — half a dozen works. 
Godham, a most learned commentator, disciple of O'Halloran _ 
Gibbellan, cannon of Tuam — poetry and philosophy. 
O'Buge — Stanihurst compares h'nn to Saint Augustine. 
Gilbert, of Urgale, (Louth,) a friar and author, 1330. 
Author of the Annals of Eoss, Ijved in 1346. 
Clynne, of Kilkenny, author of '-Annalum Chronicon." 
Fitz-Ralph, archbishop of Armagh — about 12 works. 
Kelly, a literary archbishop of Cashel, sou (?) of O'Buge! 



[189] 

Hugh, "of Ireland," a distingiiishod traveler and writer. 
William, of "Drogheda," cannon-law professor at Oxford. 
Crump, of Baltinglas, a very bold, theological writer. 
Fleming, archbishop of Armagh, "Provincial Constitutions." 
Ragget, bishop of Cork and Ossory — much learning, 1421. 
William, of "Waterford," a religions writer of this century. 
Norris, a bold priest, of Dundalk, and D. I), of Oxford. 
Maguiro, of Fermanagh, philosopher, divine, and historian. 
O'Fihely, of Tuani, ("FIo.<i Mnnrir) — man}^ heavy writings. 
Maguire, bishop of Leitrim, an historical writer. 
Fitch, author of "White Book of Christ Church," (Dublin) &c. 
Cassidy, a respectable writer and scholar (p. I'iT.) 
Travers, a priest, opposed llcnrj' VIII, with pen and pike — 
hanged at Tvburn. 



CHAPTER XC. — EXPT.ANATION. 

Is there no doubt about it — that all those illustrious (charac- 
ters were natives of Ii'cland ? 

The truth requires it to be mentioned, that more than one 
country contends for the nativity of Sedulius, Erigena, St. Gall, 
Catakbis, Danscot and a few others named in the above list. 
It looks also strange, if not improbable, that St. Mansuetus, 
who was a disciple of St. Peter by whom he was sent into 
Lorraine, so early as the year CG, should have been born in the 
far west. But the fact is — these questions have been over and 
over discussed by the Ushers of Europe, and the weight of ar- 
gument brings the biographical scales, in the matters before 
us, to the side at w^hich they here turn. (See Usher's Primor- 
iliis, p. p. 747 to 1038.) Mosheim, the German Protestant histo- 
rian, speaks of the Irish of those days in these words — "those 
lovers of learning, who distinguished themselves in times of 
ignorance hy the culture of the sciences beyond any other Euro- 
pean nation, travelling through the most distant lands to im- 
prove and communicate their knowledge — those Hibernians 
who Avere the first teachers of the scholastic theology in 
p]urope.'"* 



*And is it not so, to a great extent, at this present hour: look :it the Cath- 
olic Cliurch iu the United States, Canada, Newfoundland and Australia; and 



[190] 

Is this, then, the full list of Irish celebrities during the mid- 
dle ages ? 

How could that be, when it is confined to one class, the 
ecclesiastical, and does not contain all of that class, either? 
Several names belonging to this category, but omitted liere, 
b}^ reason of our limits, may be seen in Ware's '■'Vctei'es 
Scriptores." 



CHAPTER XCT. — MODERN CELERRTTIES. 

Has Ireland produced any ver}^ distinguished characters, 
during the three last centuries? 

So many, in almost every walk of life, as to constitute, to a 
certain extent, a species of social phenomena, when the 
wretched state of the countr}', during three-fourths of the 
period, is taken into account. The previous state of civil 
convulsion, during four hundred years, had brought the 
nation to a very low condition indeed, at the end of that 
period; and it was, also, at the end of that period, that the 
bitter poleniical ingredient was thrown in and stirred u]) to 
effervesce the horrid batter. Proscription of conscience was 
inseparable from proscription of knowledge, and wholesale 
confiscation kept up a standing artificial famine, so that 
Burke^s awful j^icture of the Dccan, Avhen the tempest of 
Hj^ler Ally had swept it, would seem to have been only a 
copy of that which his native land had presented for many 
generations — '' Not one man, not one woman, not one four- 
footed beast could be seen for niiles — one wide, uniform des- 
olation reigned around!" — Such is not the soil or the climate 
in which we arc accustomed to look for literary or scien- 
tific plesiosaura. 

I will thank you, then, for the principal names in modern 
Irish biography? 



look at the Irish Propaganda of All-IIoUows, near Dublin, supported mainly 
by the penny contributions of tlio poor of Ireland, for the special and sole 
purpose of educating and ordaining liish missionaries for foreign countries. 



[191] 

Grouped accordiiiij to pursuit, and arranged with some 
regard for clirouology, they may be enumerated thus : — 

In natural science and experimental philosophy : Brounker, 
Boyle, Orrery, Molyneux, Ashe, Hurley, Sloan, Clayton, Berkeley, 
Brown, ("the Irish Linnaeus,") Keogh, Darci, Black, Ilelsham, 
Cusack, Simon, Xirwan, Stewart, McBride, Eobinson, Lloyd, 
Gallon, Haughton, Gooper, Ross, Stokes, Sullivan, (the chem- 
ist,) Lardner. The eight, last named, are still living. 

In moral j^hilosophy, divinity and metaphysics : Lombard, 
Arthur, Bruodine, Pouce, Wadding, (Peter,) Kearney, Baron, 
Ilickey, Hacket, Linze, Mathews, Eoth, Annesley, Dodwell, 
King, Toland, Abernethy, (not Hunter's pupil,) Sail, Peppard, 
Delany, Leslie, Synge, Henderson, A7alsh, Hutcheson, Leland, 
(not the historian) Burridge, Story, Brown, Boyce, (not the 
poet,) Talbot, Clarke, Duchal, Maguirc, Skelton, Lawson. — 
Nine or ten of the first named, in this group, lived in for- 
eign countx'ies. 

In history and antiquities : Penibridgo, Stanihurst, Dow- 
ling, Usher, Ware, AVadding, Ward, Colgan, the Four Mas- 
ters, two Magheogans, Keating, Lynch, White, Cox, Ilalliday, 
Flaherty, the two Charles O'Connors, O'Halleran, Pilkington, 
Beauford, Ledwidge, Lanigan, Petrie, O'Donovan, Dalton. — 
Several translators, including Harris and Kelly, several local 
historians, including McSkimmiug, and several biographers, 
including Parr, are omitted as second-class reputations. 

Poets: Roscommon, Parnel, Delan}', Eusden, Boyse, Dunken, 
Moncks, Jones, O'Daly, Milikin, Carolan, Fitzgerald, Lucas, 
(not the patriot, but his son,) Dermody, Brook, (Miss,) Percy, 
Wolfe, Furlong, Callanan, MacDonnell, Collins, (not the author 
of "Oriental Eclogues,") Sullivan, Davis, (Thomas,) Davis, 
(Francis,) Mangan, Walshe, Moore, MacCarthy, Curran, 
(Grattan,) Frazer, Cooke, (Eliza,) Lover, Irving, Ferguson, 
McGee, "Slingsby." The five, last named, are living, as, also, 
Francis Davis, and several unquestionable poets, whose anony- 
mous productions have been published in the Nation news- 
paper and the goodly volume edited by Mr. Hays, of Edin- 
burgh, but not yet separately in the book form. This accounts 
for their omission here, with sevei'al third-rate reputations, 
to be found in Hardiman. 

Dramatists: Congreve, Clancy, Pilou, Farquahar, O'Brien 



[102] 

Eynn, (Liicy,) A[urj>liy, O'llara, Sullivan, O'lvecic, (rriftlLli, 
Head, Cleiulivre, ('live, Southern, Oultau, Moi'<i-aii, Cheny, 
Bickerstaff, JMaddcii. Deri-ick. jMolloy, two Slievidans, Dan- 
cer, Kelly, (rreicory. Pilkiiiii-tou, Ashton, Boyd, MsUuriii, (fleii- 
gall, Sava.iico. Mr. Savage is the only one of these livin<^, 
aii(J, therefore, not to be confounded with the unfortunate 
Enijlish ]»oet of that luune. 

In jioetry and dramatics : Denhain, Brady, Tate, CJoldsniith, 
Clancy, Oooke, ( Wm.) ('oncanen, Francis, (Junninii-hani, (ji-iffin, 
Shiel. The last name is illustrious in senatorial and forensic 
oratory. 

In histrionic delineation : Willcs, l)o,<i\<;-ct, Macklin, ^lossop, 
Pope, Bari-y, (Sprano-er,) MacSwiny, Quinn, Sheridan, ("Man- 
a<;-ei',"' )Johnstone, Stephens, Power, Williams, Sullivan. (Barry,) 

Collins. WofHuii-ton, Altin<j;don, (Jlover, 'i'i-ihc, Farren, 

Mays, with several already mentioned, as dramatists. The 
last six names are those of lady "stars,'' and four of the 
entire group are still '-shininii;,"' with a whole liallet of many 
popular characters, not uj», however, to our standard, and, 
therefore, omitted. 

In legislation and jui-is|)rudeHcc : Belicvv. Ormond, Broder- 
ick, Yelvertou, Dovvdall, Grattan, Charlemont, Flood, Plunket, 
Burke, Curran, Fitzgibbon, 0"(/Onnell, Harrington, Maf-Cartiiey. 

In war and prowess: two O'Neills, (Hugh and Owen Juh\) 
two O'Brien's, (Morough and he of Fontency,) three .MaoDon- 
nells, ("Colkitto," he of Cremona, and the Due de I'lin-nlo.) 
O'More, O'Donnell, O'Dogherty, Ca.stlehaven, Broghill, Sars- 
field, O'Sullivan Bearl^ (Daniel.) Magheogan, (of Dunbhwy, 
De (Jourcy, 31ahony, ("le fameux."") Dillon, Penu, Mathew, 
Juniper Blood, I'licky, Ilogan, Kent, Orury, C'oote, (Eyre,) 
Black well, Carleton, (of (^)uel)ec.) Wolfe Tone, Corbett, Law- 
less, Tandy, Bai-i-v. \Vellington, Gough, I have here over- 
looked the illustrious Lall}' ; because, though Ii'ish by parent- 
age, name and feeling, L believe he M'as born in ]"''i'ance. 
For tlie rest, see O'Connor's or (rCallaghan's Irish " Brigade."' 

[\\ medicine and surgery: Aberneth^-, O'Connor, (of Poland,) 
two O'Mearas, O'Connell ("the Irish (iaubins'") Greatrex. or 
Greatrakes. Rogei's, trraves. Cram])ton, Cv)rrigan. H;\rry, 
JMarshe, Wilde, Cusack, O'Beilly. The last seven nre our 
coteinporaries. 



[193] 

111 polite literature, wit and romanec: Swift, Steel, Moles- 
worth, several Bojles, (IiOi^er, Charles, John and Charlotte,) 
several Sheridans, (ineludinii; the old Doctor and Mrs. Frances, ) 
Fielding, O'Leary, Johnstone, De la Cour, Banim, the Brontes, 
Maginn, (of Derry,) Maginn, (of Cork,) Edgcworth, Croker, 
]'oche, ("J. R.,") Wise, Carleton, Glover, Giles, JIall, with many 
named above, the most classical of whom are Goldsmith, Con- 
greve, Hutcheson, Burke, Murph}', Ivell}^ Southern, Moore, 
Griffin, Lover. 

In social reform : Ormond, (Piers Butler,) Worth, Denn}', 
McDonnell, (of Newfoundland,) Southwell, Smith, (Erasmus,) 
Father Mathew, Foster, Spratt. The two last-named, are still 
living. For a group of this class, see page IC>2. 

Political writers: Borlace, Darcy, Nagle, Lucas (Charles.) 
Scully, O'Connor, (Arthur,) Drennan, Neilson, MacNevin, 
Sampson, Doyle, ("J. K. L.") Madden, (not the dramatist,) 
O'Callaghan, Duffy, O'Brien, O'Connell, (John,) Mitchell, Staun- 
ton, Barr}-, Cahill, besides many already named, the chief 
of whom are MoI^micux, Swift, Broderick, Grattan, Burke, 
O'Connell, Sliiel, Davis. This Lucas must not be confounded 
with the late eminent editor of the "Tablet," whose name was 
Frederick and whose birth was English. 

Li different other departments : O'Brien, Cockeran, MacCur- 
tin, Sheridan, Sullivan, (live lexicographers,) Smith, Stafford, 
(two geographers) O'Gilb}', Walshe, Bowling, Wilson, Webb, 
Dowdall, Grierson, (Constantia,) Plunket and llurly, (two 
archbishops and patriot-mart3'rs,) with a long array of lay and 
clerical holocausts, in particular, the Bishop of Boss, Silken 
Thomas, the last Desmond, Emmet, (Robert,) Lord Edward 
Fitzgerald, and the one hundred and forty-three heroes of 
Dunbhwy; Prior, Malone, Emmet (Addis,) Hutcheson, (Jlely,) 
Philips, Meagher, (orators,) Kane, RtisscI, Macllale, Magee, 
Graves, Gilbert and other writers. The last seven are still 
living. In music — Mills, Bun worth, Ashe, De la Main, Kane, 
Talbot; in painting — Bany, (James,) Copley, Archdall, Bar- 
ret, Baillie, Beard, Brooks, Collins, Gilray, Hone, Jervas, Mur- 
phy, Macli.se, Walmsley, Thomson, Tresham : in sculpture — 
Hogan, Foley, MacDonnell ; in architecture — Burlington, the 
two Robinsons, Barry, &c. Pope says, Lord Burlington's fame 
filled the land with " imitating fools." 

99 



L19^] 



CUAl'TKK XCII. — ^EXPLANATION. 



I avow, this long cat:ilo£;-ae malces mo sus]jici()us and aiix- 
iotis to be satisfied on two points: first, whether names of no 
reputation are inserted therein to swell the list; and, second, 
Avhethe-r Ireland has a just claim, by birth or education, to all':' 

]n reply to your first question, I candidly confess, that a few 
writers arc there named, wdiosc claims to notice will stand no 
advantageous comparison with twice the number unavoidably 
overlooked, by I'cason of my ignorance. In answer to your 
second intei'rogatory, I also frankly allow, that I have a doubt 
respecting the nativity of a few more. I'ut, in no instance, 
has demerit oi- I'orcign liatality got into that catalogue, except 
bij iiiisftikt'; while large reputations connected with the country 
by residence, labors, and ])aventage, are wholl}' and delib- 
eratcl}' left out, liccausc the liidv ol' tJi; facto nativity is bi'oken. 
I allude to the Ibreign liorn sons of Irish ])arenls who have 
left their names in Ei'itish, Italian, French, Spanish, Aus- 
trian and American histories, and lo sucii celebrities as 
Marsh, Boulter, 'I'ayloi-, Abl)adie, Bale, the C^reat Earl of Cork, 
IkMlel, IJramhail, Budgell, CMia])j»el, !k.(:., whose lives and writ- 
ings, hut not whose births, bi-long to Ireland. 

I am not yet satisfied, and must now troubh^ ^-ou to let 
me judge for myseli' the res]teeti\c elaims to immortality of 
youi' chief celebrities. 



CHAPTER XOTH. — NATIIRAUSTS. 

llrounkcr, one of the autodidactic class: l)ut, though self- 
educated, a profound mathematician — aulhor of the "First 
series for the cjuadrature of the h3"})erbola," first president of 
the Royal »Society, (London,) and its reputed founder — Cork. 

Robert Boyle, inventor of the air-pumj), discoverer of jthos- 
phorus, wdiose ''Observations" and "Discourse on attraction 
and suction" o])ened the way for Newton, to whom Antliony 
le (Irand, the Cartesian ])hilosopher, dedicated his "■Ilistoria 
jVaturac," and apjilied Avcrroe's estimate of Aristotle — "Na- 
ture bad formed him, as an cxamplar or pattern of the high- 



[195] 

est ])ei'fection to which humanity can attain." (]>. ji. 1(13, 120.) 

Charles Boyle, Earl of Orrery — aharon}- in (Jork — a literary 
and scientific schohvr, the reputed inventor of the "orrery,'' 
kinsman of the last. 

Molyncux, first writer on the science of (lio[)trics, an illus- 
trious ])liiloso])her and ])a(riot, Avhose "Case of Ireland," 
asserting- his country's iiidej)endence of England, was ordered 
to be burned l)y the common hangman ! 

Sloan, a jdiysiciaii, first introducer of bark' in medicine, 
author of a ])ondcrous and costly work' — "The Natural His- 
tory of Jamaica," in two illustrated volumes, folio. Ho suc- 
ceeded Newton as President of the Jioyal Society. His 
collection of curiosities, for which the govei'nment gave his 
liunily 20,000 pounds sterling, was, Avith his libraiy of 50,000 
vnluirics, the nucleus of the British Museum, now, ])erha])s, 
the largest in the world — a good man and a great physicist. 

Berkeley, born and educated in Kilkenny, (])p. 148 and '!>,) 
"Theory of Vision," "Minute Philosopher," "The Annalist,'' 
"Principles of Knowledge," which last, proving the non-exist- 
ence of matter, "admit of no answer and })roduce no convic- 
ticm" — a world-wide reputation. 

Keogh, professor at Oxford, ]n'ofound science and classical 
scholar — "(ireek Lexicon," (J reek and Latin Grammars, &c. 

Darci resided tit Paris — subjects: vision, artillery, mechanics. 

Black, of J-^clfast — "Ho has an incontestible claim to be re- 
garded as the founder of modern chemistry" — Brougham 

Kirwan, of Clalway, another Black — Lanigan regarded him 
as a niatch for Newton, in the knowledge of nature. 

Donald Stewart, the indefatigable mineralogist. 

Robinson, of the Iloyal Irish Academy, one of the deepest 
of living scholars in abstruse science. 

Cooper, "\ Living astronomers. Cooper's observatory is at 

Poss. « > Marcrce, in Sligo, where he composed the astronom- 

Lloyd, 3 ical chart, to the publication of which the lioyal 
Society is now giving its ])arliamentary grant; as the French 
government are publishing the star-chart of M. Chacornac. 
By Cooper's instrument, the strange fact has been detected 
that 77 stars, before known, are now missed from the heavens ! 

Callen, of Maynooth, on electricity and magnetism, Haugh- 
ton on the tides, McCullngh and Stokes (M1 light, have broken 



[19G] 

much new i^round in these fiekls of nature. MeGauley is 
the author of u good volume, embracing all depai'tmeiUs of 
experi men tul phi losophy. 



CHAPTER XCIV. — METAPHYSICIANS, DIVINES, ETIIICISTS. 

Dodwcll, 80 poor at first, that he had to write with charcoal, 
author of a great number of worUs, tiresome to enumerate — 
vast learning developing a great genius. 

King, author of " Origine Mdh','' a poor 7iiiller's son of 
Antrim, rose to bo archbishop of Dublin. 

Toland, the boldest infidel the Island of Saints has pro- 
duced — a meteor of learning, vanity and patriotism. 

Synge — 59 tracts in divinity — high reputation. 

Hutcheson, the greatest Irish name in ethics. First, a poor 
Hchoolmaster in Dublin; afterwards, professor of pliilosoithy 
in the university of Edinburgh : works, "Ideas of Beauty 
and Virtue," "The Passions," &c. 

Samuel Clarke, '• unquestionably the most learned man ever 
connected with the Methodist Church," as his "Commenta- 
ries" prove, born in the north of Antrim. 

Henderson, " the Irish Crighton," Aviiose traditioiiaiy fame 
as a universal genius, is so large, but whose works are so few, 
belongs to Limerick. 

The above seven are the most famed of this group. 

Wadding, divine, rhetorician, ethicist — many works. 

Baron, of Clonmcl, "best Latin writer,'' — 14 works. 

Linzc of Spain, native of Galway — '■' SatuDia JPhUosophiae.'' 

lioth, bishop of Ossary — " Annalecta Sacra." 

Abernethy of Colerain — "Moral Attributes," "Sermons,"' &c. 

Sail, of Cashel, distinguished in controversy. 

Pcppard, born in Drogheda, died 1640, a philosopher. 

Leslie, of Glaslough, wrote much polemical and jiolitical. 

Leland — " View of Deistical Writers," " Oratoiy," &c. 

Burridge, Latin translator of Locke's " Understanding." 

Brown, refuter of Toland— " The Human Understanding." 

Talbot — several religious works. 

Duchal, successor of Clarke — 7U0 sermons! &c. 

Maguire — controversy — opponent of Pope and Gregg. 

Dixon, present Catholic archl^ishop of Armagh, 1 good woi-k. 



[ lav 1 



CHAPTER XCV. — HISTORIANS. 

Uslici-, " a scholar second to none these ishuids have ]m-o- 
duced, except, perhaps, Selden " — one of tlic highest rejnita- 
lions belonging to historical literature — " Chronology," " His- 
tory of the British Churches," &c., born in Dublin, archbishop 
of Armagh and principal founder of the Dublin universit}'. 

Ware, a baronet, born in Dublin — extensive works on Irish 
ecclesiastical history, scarcely inferior to Usher. 

Wadding of Eomc, born in AVatcrford, uncle of Baron, prin- 
cipal foreign supporter of the devolution, in 1(341, founder of 
the College of St. Isadore and other Irish establishments on 
the Tiber — most extensive biographical, historical, and cjinon- 
ical writer. Luke Wadding was a prodigy. 

Colgan, author of " Thaumaturga," professor at Louvain, a 
voluminous but credulous historical compiler. 

Dr. Charles O'Connor, such another as Ware, a most respect- 
able name in historic compilation. These live used the 
Latin language as their medium. 

Lanigan, professor of Hebrew, divinit}' and sacretl histor}^ 
in the university of Pavia, (Italy) till obliged to fly on the 
invasion of Lombardy by Napoleon; afterward, translator and 
librarian to the Dublin Society, from 1790 till his death in a 
lunatic as^dum, 1828: author of '^ Prologomena" to the Scrip- 
tures, "Preface" to the "Protestant Apolog}' " of William 
Talbot, (the preface being four times the size of the Avork 
itself!) '-Ecclesiastical History of Ireland," with 8 good vol- 
umes of translations from the Spanish, German, French, itc, 
and editor of 22 volumes of statistical surveys, Alban Butler's 
" Moral Discourses," the Roman Breviary, and other works — 
all falling on one brain, '"cracked it," (see p. 90.) This Irish 
Muratori was born in Cashel. These six historians are, per- 
haps, the weightiest of this group, if one or two living writers 
be not referred to. 

Lynch, Flaherty, O'llalleran, and the Abbe MacGeoghegan 
are disquisitionists of much merit, the Hrst and the last being 
as much disputants and jtoliticians as historians. 



Note. — Since the above has been written, we learn that Dionysius Lard- 
ner, known to the world hy his scientitic works, is ilead — born in Wexford. 



[198] 



CIIArTER XCV[. — rOETS. 

" Doiiliiini," s;iys Johnson, " is one of the founders of llic 
Eiii;-lis!i hmgLUig-c." In liis traged}' of tlio " .So])liy," wi-ilcs 
Waller, "ho brolvC out like the Irish rcl)ellion, when nobody 
Avas uAvarc!" His "Cooper's Hitl,'' remarks Drydcn, "for 
niajcsly of stylo is, and ever Avill bo, tlio standard of good 
Avritiiig," — hora in Diiljiin, buried with Chaucer. 

J^osconimon — " if equalled," says Fenton, "by any poet of 
our nation, ho is inferior to none." Comparing him witli 
I)rydeu, Po])e writes : 

"Uii]iap[)y Urydcn ! in all Charles's days, 
Roscoiiiiuon only boasts uiispott.cd lays.'' 

llis ]irL)i)er name Dillon, is now hjst in his title, " Roseominon." 
Carolan, one of the most unmistakable ])uetie and musical 
geniuses spoken of in history or biogra[)hy. "Of all the 
Lards this country ever })roduced, the last and greatest was 
Carolan, the blind. He was at once a ])oet, a musician, and 
comj)oser, and sang his owui verses to his harp." — Goldsmith. 
Brady and Tate, like Beaumont and Fletcher, are insejKira- 
Lle. Their united translation of the Koyal Psalmist has long 
superseded every other in the I'jnglish language. Brady has 
left us a translation of the ^Eneid, and Tate dramas — -born, 
respectively, in Bandon and Dublin. 

Tliomas Parnel, vicar of Finglass, (Dul)lin,) one of the 
easiest and hap])icst, because one of the most 7iatural of poets — 
"Allegory on Man," "The Hermit," — died 1717. 

"What lieavt but fcols his sweetly moral lay, 

That leads to trutli through jileasure's flow'ry way." 

(loldsmith — " Ye who care for nature, for the charms of 
song, for the deeds of ancient days, weep for the historian, the 
naturalist, tlie poet!" — Johnson. Departments: poetry, the 
drama, natural history, civil history, fiction, didactics, biogra- 
]>hy! Greece or liomo in their ])almiest days might avoU be 
proud of such an intellect. 

Moore — "The poet of all circles," the Anacreon of the 
British Isles, the greatest lyric poet in the English language, 
Avas born in Dul)lin and educated at Trinity ('ollegc : "The 



[199] 



Mdodic. •• " Lnlla Uhook-;' " LUtlc's roc,™," "A..croo, m 
i:",; ..ni....vv or ln.l.,Hl,- "l.ifo of Byr.„," .™1 o 
vvs Thesoavo tlu- ,„os, .lis.h,,ui.bca ,K„nos n, Insl, 



poclry 



CTTAT>TKUX('Vr(.— n^AMATlSTS— ACTOKS. 



litoruT Inslory rocord^ I douhl ^vl.olhov any om ( a, Ik, 
11, •u. tlu> plays oC Con-reve. —Johnson. u^ i- 

n h\vHler"-Yollairc. He "is next to Shakespeare -1 .)- 
In ho far exeee<le.l Shakespeare in con.e<ly, .vlulc 
^;erP;a::snhn.UU.aU,eir.reat.^^ 

revision. P.orn in Dublin, edueated m ^^^'^^^^'^ -^^V"^' ;- , 
Farnnakav, I^lnrpky, O'Keeie, Southern, Kelly and I--1., 
.::;o,i.e.riterlanddran>a.ea.h...;the^h^^^^ 

::?r e;:r::: ;h;r;:^>:v:;;^;u.o ^ 

"^^^""" ' •; rp, , . ,,f tiie'so seven names 

in the way of preeedenee. J he leasl 
.vould retl-et eredit on any i.alional literature. Claney, i 

: Mrs. Centlivre, Cherry, Eie.erstai, Madden, o o 
Sheridan, Maturei., have secured respeetable niches m da 
;.::tic bi;,raphy; uhile Madden and Sheridan stand on std. 

hi'-her pedestals elsewlierc. 

\ ,Uo sock and buskin .roup, are named a dozen stars 
of the first magnitude, ^Vilks ^vas the first .reat hash de- 
lineator, Avbosc genius commanded reluctant homage irom the 
En<dish public-born 1070. Macklin, Mossop, Bany, Q-nn, 
.'nmna.-er Sheridan," and " T'eo-" Wofiington, immoduitely ap- 
pearedto dazzle ami delight. In their special Ibrtcs, Spranger 
Lrry and (^uinn ^vcre acknowledged giants, P-'^^^^^; 
inferior to Garrick ; and, as a beauty and an actrcs A\ofling 
ton had no rival on the English stage. Of then- hv,ng suc> 
cessors, the classic Earry Sullivan and the -^^^^^^^ ^ ^^ 
Hays, need only be named to bo recognized as ullj si sta n- 
ing the proverbial reputation of Irish genais ni Instr.oinc 
science. 



[200 



niAPTER XCVIII — OTHER fIREAT MEN. 

Of the next ^Ton]!, tlio hei'ocs of tlic Yellow Ford, I'eii- 
burh, Limerick, (y'reiuona, Foiiteiioy, I'oiideehcny, AVaterloo, 
mid the Sutlej, possess the ii;re:itest fume. C'oote and Gough 
were born in Limerick, the former in the city, the latter near 
it; and Meath has the singular privilege of having produced 
the conqueror of the modern Charlemagne. 

At Affane in Watei-ford, was born, in 1628, that strange 
prodigy, whose wondei-iiil cures, in L-eland and England, by 
the bare touch of his hand, ai-c so well attested by liobert 
Boyle, the learned Ilenr}- Stubb and several bisliops and cler- 
gymen. (See p. 118.) 

Li legislation, oratoiy and letters, England has ])roduced 
no match ibr Burke. Jlis head is as high over the two Pitts, 
her greatest men in this line, as the sword of Wellington is 
over that of Mai-lborough. " There can lie no hesitation," 
says Brougham, " in according him a place among the most 
extraordinary persons that have ever appeared." Of Grattan 
tiie same distinguished writer speaks thus : " While yet in the 
]>riine of youth, he had achieved a victory wliich stands at the 
head of all the triumphs ever won b}' a patriot for his coun- 
tr}^ in modern times." And again, " It would not be easy to 
point out any statesman or ])atriot, in an}' age of the world, 
whose fame stands higher, nor is it possible to name any one 
the purity of whose reputation has been stained by so few 
faults. In private life he was without a stain, whether of tem- 
per or of principle." Of O'Connell, it is enough to sa}', that 
lie rivaled Burke and Grattan. It is in that notice of Grat- 
tan, that the English law-lord makes this candid avowal : 
" T/ia nilsrule <tnd oppression e.rcrcised by Ivnyland orer the Irish 
])vo])le, extended to nil their conunereicd dealings as icell as to their 
■political rights.^' 



THE END. 



G 631 



